Nikko Kanaya Hotel

The Nikko Kanaya Hotel (日光金谷ホテル) is Japan's oldest surviving resort hotel, founded in June 1873 as the Kanaya Cottage Inn by Kanaya Zenichiro, a gagaku musician at Nikko Toshogu shrine. The hotel originated when American missionary James Curtis Hepburn suggested that Kanaya convert his residence into an inn for foreign visitors. In 1893, Kanaya bought the unfinished Mikado Hotel at Kami-Hatsuishi near the approach to Nikko Toshogu, repaired and enlarged it, and opened it as the Kanaya Hotel, establishing what would become one of Japan's most prestigious hotels.

The hotel became a favored destination for foreign dignitaries, diplomats, and intellectuals throughout the Meiji, Taisho, and early Showa periods. Notable guests included former U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant (1879), architect Frank Lloyd Wright (1905), physicist Albert Einstein (1922), aviator Charles Lindbergh, and Helen Keller. The broader Nikko and Lake Chuzenji area developed into an international summer resort, with European and American diplomats building villas and forming a vibrant expatriate social scene from the late 19th century onward.

During World War II, the hotel's fortunes changed dramatically. In December 1943, the hotel was converted into dormitory housing for female volunteer workers (女子挺身隊) employed at Furukawa Electric's wartime factories. By September 1944, as American air raids intensified across Japan, the facility transitioned to evacuation housing. The Nikko area, home to the UNESCO World Heritage shrines and temples as well as residences of neutral country diplomats (including Swiss and Swedish representatives), was notably spared from Allied bombing throughout the war.

On October 25, 1945, following Japan's surrender, the hotel was requisitioned by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP/GHQ) and designated as a Special Service Hotel for U.S. military personnel on leave. During the occupation period, weekly dance parties and bingo tournaments were held at the hotel, with Japanese staff participating alongside American servicemen. General Dwight D. Eisenhower visited the hotel in 1946 during his tour of occupied Japan.

The requisition was lifted on February 29, 1952, and the hotel was returned to civilian control. The management subsequently transitioned from American-style single-role staffing back to traditional Japanese multi-role employment practices and resumed serving Japanese civilian guests. Today, the Nikko Kanaya Hotel continues to operate as a prestigious resort hotel, with the original Main Building (1893), the Annex (1935), and other structures recognized as registered tangible cultural properties. The Kanaya Hotel History House, opened to the public in 2015 in the former Kanaya Cottage Inn in the Honchō district, preserves the original Kanaya family residence and documents the hotel's 150-year history.