Masanori TakeishiDirector and Lighting Director, ICE Urban Environment Lighting Institute

"Seeking beauty in dim light" - Embodying the essence of Japanese culture

Our relationship with the Karuizawa Hoshino area began when we were introduced to the area by landscape architect Hiroki Hasegawa and worked on the lighting design for Hoshinoya Karuizawa. After that, we were involved in the renovation of Harunire Terrace and Hoshino Onsen Tombo no Yu, as well as the renovation project for the Stone Church and Kanzo Uchimura Memorial Hall. The Stone Church won a Special Citation at the 2024 IES Illumination Awards, sponsored by the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America.

My first job at Hoshinoya Karuizawa is an unforgettable memory. Hoshinoya is a lodging that basically accepts reservations for two nights or more. If you are staying for one night, you will likely only enjoy breakfast and a bath on the second day, so it is better to make the space explanatory, but if you are staying for consecutive nights, you will spend more than 2 hours on the second day, including breakfast, lunch, and dinner, so if it is too easy to understand, it may end up being boring. We often hear people say that "Hoshinoya Karuizawa is dark," but that is because we have pursued comfort.

This is also true of Junichiro Tanizaki's famous book "In Praise of Shadows," which is a bible for architects and designers. It has been less than 150 years since incandescent light bulbs began to be used in Japan, and until then, Japanese people sought beauty in dim light and organized their lives. The same is true of teahouses. Original teahouses did not have lights, and people relied on the light of the sun and moon that filtered through the windows. This sense of beauty is in the DNA of Japanese people. Brightness is reassuring, but if you stay there for a long time, you will feel unsatisfied. In high-end restaurants, people tend to spend a long time there, and the lighting should be dimly adjusted to make you feel comfortable. If you look at the Hoshino area from that perspective, I think you will make a different discovery.

What are the attractive points of the Karuizawa Hoshino area as chosen by lighting designers?

As a lighting designer, it's really difficult for me to pick a favorite place in the Hoshino area.

When I'm involved in any project, I take into consideration the characteristics of the region. Karuizawa has a lively side, like the old Karuizawa Ginza district, but it's not a completely open place. Mount Asama is in the background, and the further you go, the deeper the darkness becomes. So at Hoshinoya Karuizawa, from the reception area where you are first led to the gathering place, to the village in the valley, the brightness is reduced and a gradation of brightness is created. So it's difficult to pick out a point that I like, but if I had to say, I like everything about it.

If I had to pick one particular place at Hoshinoya, it would be the main dining room, Japanese Cuisine Kasuke. We insisted on using pendant lights. The ceiling there is quite high, so it would be much easier to install a light source in the ceiling than to hang lights from the ceiling, but that would cause the light to shine all over the place and make it feel unsettling. We chose hanging lights because we wanted to deliver light to each table. There are other things to say about the lighting at Kasuke. The space is designed in a stepped pattern to follow the difference in height of the rice terraces outside, and we placed lights in detail on the stepped walkways to allow safe movement. The lighting changes completely when you sit down, so you can be aware of the public and private areas. We would be happy if you could spend your time relaxing.

Someday, I hope to open a bar where you can enjoy Japanese analog lighting.

I think the Hoshino area, which has celebrated its 110th anniversary, will continue to evolve. It would be interesting to have a candle bar as the ultimate analogue. You see, around Christmas time, the courtyard of Karuizawa Kogen Church is decorated with countless candles. I think that would be a wonderful experience that you can't get anywhere else, and that's the image I have.

There are many different types of flames, with Western candles flickering horizontally and Japanese candles flickering vertically. I would like to go back to the origins of Japanese lighting and have a bar that only features Japanese candles. Japanese people instinctively understand the beauty of flames. I think it would be a very relaxing place.