Kanshukuen

Filled with bamboo baskets, Echizen pottery and antique chests, each of the eight villas at Kanshukuen ESHITOKO follows its own theme. Rooms are supervised and art directed by ceramic and plastic artist Koichi Uchida, who set a black colour scheme running through the property to match the neighbouring ESHIKOTO. The interiors mix East and West: Echizen-yaki ceramics and Echizen-nuri lacquerware sit beside Art Deco furniture, Yi Dynasty white porcelain, folk art and pieces by modern and contemporary artists. It is a small property, with just eight rooms in total. Three villas, closest to the Kuzuryu River, look out over rice paddies; one measures 103.52 square metres and sleeps one to two guests. Every room has a semi-open-air bath fed by an onsen drawn from 1,000 metres underground, a sodium-chloride-hydrogen-carbonate spring with a pH of 9.1. Doors and slits can be opened or closed to shift between an open terrace feel and full privacy. You can feel Fukui's morning air on your skin, or sit under a clear night sky at the same bath. On-site dining spans a Japanese restaurant, a bar and a pâtisserie serving rice cooked in a clay pot at breakfast. Check-in runs from 3pm. Parking is available on site.