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The Park Hotel Tokyo (Shiodome Media Tower), in December 2012, started the “Artist in Hotel” project where an artist decorates an entire guestroom. The project is still in progress. By 2016, all the guestrooms on the 31st floor will be so decorated, and the “Artist Room One Hundred Poems”, the 7th in the series, has now been completed.
“Artist in Hotel” is the hotel version of “Artist in Residence”. The artist himself stays in the hotel, absorbs the atmosphere of the hotel while partaking of its facilities and services, and fashions a hotel room into a work of art. Inspired by the “Japanese sense of aesthetics”, the artist paints directly on the walls of the room as if it were a tapestry, and affixes original paintings and objects to the walls so that the entire room becomes a room with the artist’s view of the world. These rooms, which evoke typical Japanese themes like “Sumo” and “Zen”, are primarily offered to overseas guests, and are highly appreciated.
In the seventh project, calligrapher Masako Inkyo residing in New York decorated a room based on the theme of an ancient anthology of 100 traditional Japanese poems by 100 poets.
Inkyo showed Japanese aesthetics by using Japanese “kana” characters, saying, “I wanted to express the elegance of aristocrats in the Heian period.” The Japanese syllabary is said to have blossomed in the period (794-1192).
She completed the room during her stay at the hotel from April 16 to 22, 2014. Respecting the orthodox style of calligraphy, Inkyo also produces works with a free and creative mind. She used the guest room walls as if they were folding screens to confidently arrange the room space, writing the 100 poems in numerical order on the entrance wall and drawing big “kanji” characters for snow, moon and flower on the bedroom walls to represent the four seasons in Japan. Guests lying on the bed can see golden “kana” characters of shooting stars lighting up the ceiling painted in black. On another bedroom wall, poems from the anthology are written with letters representing rain drops. She also put up a hanging scroll by the window to create a space like a “tokonoma” alcove. Guests will be able to feel the four seasons and nature by looking at the stars on the ceiling, snow, moon and flower as well as rain on the bedroom walls and Mt. Fuji in snow in the bathroom while staying at the hotel in urban settings.
Please discover the beauty of the Japanese “kana” characters at the Artist Room One Hundred Poems.
[Artist Room One Hundred Poems Outline]
Opening: 1st May, 2014 (online and phone reservations accepted)
Room: Double occupancy, 22 square meters
Bed size: 1600 x 1950 mm
Rate: 30,000 yen per night for two persons (excluding taxes and service charges)
Reservation and other questions: +81-3-6252-1100
https://www.parkhoteltokyo.com/art-at-park-hotel-tokyo/art-colours/
[Producer] creative unit moon
Masako Inkyo Biography
Ms. Inkyo teaches shodo at the Japan Society 2003-present.
She was the official shodo artist for Infiniti in 2010-2011.
On occasion she has collaborated with Mikimoto USA.
In the spring of 2013 Ms. Inkyo collaborated with jazz pianist Greg McKenzie to perform Shooting Star, a mixed-media Shodo and Music presentation, at the Park Hotel in Tokyo, Japan.
In addition, Ms. Inkyo has conducted many performances and demonstrations.
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