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On the stone-paved Nene-no-Michi, between Kodai-ji and the Yasaka Pagoda, a former culinary ryokan has become three private suites. The Villa Nene-no-Michi Kazeno Heritage, until April 2026 the Nene building of HOTEL VMG RESORT KYOTO, is the rare Higashiyama stay where the old town is on your doorstep and almost none of its noise comes inside.

a restored ryokan on nene’s path, three suites, copper and peacock blue

AMBIENCE >

Nene-no-Michi runs from Maruyama Park toward Kiyomizu-dera, and it is one of the most photographed streets in Kyoto. It takes its name from Nene, the wife of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who founded Kodai-ji nearby in his memory, and the area sits within one of the city’s Important Preservation Districts for Groups of Traditional Buildings. By day the path fills with kimono rentals and tour groups. Step through the entrance of the villa and the mood changes entirely.

The building was once Ryokan Rikiya, a culinary inn, and the restoration has been deliberately light-handed. Stained ceilings, discoloured earthen walls and scarred pillars have been kept rather than replaced, so the house still carries the marks of the guests who came before. Against that patina sits a design theme built around copper, a nod to a Kyoto copper-working business with roots in the Edo period, with peacock blue drawn from copper’s patina, Kaikado copper tea caddies, Seiwa-yaki ceramics and work by Kyoto artisans throughout.

SLEEP >

There are only three suites, which is the point. Room 101 on the ground floor is the 61-square-metre suite for two, opening onto a small courtyard garden beyond the engawa, with a handcrafted hinoki cypress bath. Upstairs, the 77-square-metre Kodai-ji View Suite sleeps up to four across two tatami rooms and looks over the temple roofs and Nene-no-Michi, while the 67-square-metre Yasaka Pagoda View Suite sleeps up to three and frames the five-storey pagoda from its window seat. Rooms mix tatami and timber with semi-double beds, with futons added for extra guests.

Check-in is from 3pm and check-out is by 11am. The building is not barrier-free, there are steep steps and the beams are low in places (so watch your head), there is also no parking, and guests arriving from Kyoto Station should allow around 15 minutes by taxi.

EAT >

There is no restaurant in the house itself; dining is at the group’s directly managed venues nearby. Under the former HOTEL VMG RESORT KYOTO arrangement, breakfast is offered (for an additional fee) at Heian Jingu Kaikan in the grounds of Heian Shrine, overlooking the shrine’s Shin-en garden. But we took ourselves down the street to Sway Coffee Roastery for breakfast.

For dinner, the group’s two signature Kyoto venues are Funatsuru Kyoto Kamogawa Resort, a registered tangible cultural property on the Kamo River, and Akagane Resort Kyoto Higashiyama 1925, the former residence of the owner of a copper-processing business, a short walk from the villa. Both serve Japanese-French cuisine.

DRINK >

With a lounge and complementary bar, this is a house for a quiet drink either in your own suite or downstairs in the lounge before heading for a night out. Gion is a ten-minute walk down the hill with thousands of options, and Wine Bar Origin in Shimogawara is very close by.

WORKOUT >

There is no gym, pool or spa. The workout here is the neighbourhood itself: an early walk up Nene-no-Michi, Ishibe-koji, Ninenzaka and Sannenzaka to Kiyomizu-dera before the day-trippers arrive, or a loop through Maruyama Park to Yasaka Shrine. The hills of Higashiyama make it a proper climb.

PLAY >

Kodai-ji, Entoku-in, Yasaka Pagoda, Yasaka Shrine and Kiyomizu-dera are all within walking distance, and Gion and Shijo are a few minutes further. Guest experiences offered through the hotel include a gyokuro green tea session with a tea master and a Japanese incense ceremony with flowers and tea.

CONCLUSION >

Delightful in a very traditional building with warm and helpful staff and a perfect location.

A note on names: the property was renamed in April 2026 and some map apps and booking sites still show the old HOTEL VMG RESORT KYOTO Nene name. Members of our party stayed at the former Ryoui building on the Kamo River, now Hotel VMG Kyoto Kamogawa, and that stay is reviewed separately.

The house on Nene-no-Michi was formerly Ryokan Rikiya, a culinary ryokan, and sits within the Higashiyama preservation district that protects the old streetscape around Kodai-ji and Kiyomizu-dera. It reopened as a guesthouse in 2020 as the first building of HOTEL VMG RESORT KYOTO, a “distributed” hotel whose idea was that the whole city was the hotel: rooms in one historic building, breakfast at Heian Shrine, dinner in another, and the streets in between as the corridor. In March 2023 the group added the Ryoui building, a former culinary inn on Kiyamachi beside the Kamo River.

The owner is Value Management, founded in Osaka on 14 February 2005 by Jun Tarikino. He grew up in Kobe and has spoken of how the 1995 Great Hanshin earthquake, which destroyed much of the city’s historic fabric, shaped his conviction that old buildings must be saved before they are lost. The company began by restoring historic residences as wedding venues, including Funatsuru on the Kamo River, then moved into restaurants and hotels, and has since restored dozens of historic buildings across Japan, including the castle stay at Ozu in Ehime.

In 2023 the hotel business was spun out into its own company, renamed Kazeno Heritage in February 2026, which is now the master brand for the group’s hotels. In April 2026 the two Kyoto buildings were separated: Nene became The Villa Nene-no-Michi Kazeno Heritage, in the group’s villa category for historic residences, and Ryoui became Hotel VMG Kyoto Kamogawa, a more accessible city hotel. The group says spaces and services will be updated in stages, so expect the experience to keep evolving.

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