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Riot of Demons actually a great reason to visit one of Tokyo’s most beautiful hotels this summer

Casey Baseel Jun 20, 2025
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Historical section of Tokyo’s “museum hotel” to be overrun, beautifully, by oni.

Everyone’s got their own personal preferences, but it’s a pretty safe bet that, when it comes to hotel amenities, “partially overrun by demons” isn’t going to be seen as a positive 99 times out of 100. That rare exception is coming up soon, though, at the Hotel Gajoen Tokyo.

Also known as Meguro Gajoen, the property bills itself as Japan’s only “museum hotel,” on account of its roughly 2,500 paintings and other works of Japanese art. The hotel is most famous for its Hundred Steps Staircase, a preserved corridor with opulently appointed exhibition rooms off its sides.

This summer they’ll be serving as the venue for the Wano Akari x Hyakudan Kaidan: A Riot of Demons event. The most dynamic piece is an illuminated representation of an oni (demon) done in the style of the floats of the Nebuta Festival of Japan’s northern Aomori Prefecture, something that can rarely be seen in Tokyo. In fact, the Hotel Gajoen is displaying its Nebuta-style oni for the first time in six years.

The hotel is promising “a gathering of hundreds of oni,” from 38 different artists, in paintings, ceramic figures, and both traditional crafts and contemporary art forms. Not all of them will be quite so fearsome as the Nebuta oni, if this preview image is anything to go by.

Then there’s the first part of the Wano Akari x Hyakudan Kaidan: A Riot of Demons exhibition name. “Wano Akari” translates to “light of Japan,” and there will be immersive illuminated works of non-oni art to enjoy too.

▼ The event’s preview video

Tickets for the exhibition are priced at 1,400 yen (US$9.65) for adults and can be made online here. However, if the Hundred Steps Staircase’s architecture has you wanting to dress in a similarly traditional style, the Hotel Gajoen is also offering a new Yukata Plan, with prices starting at 18,000 yen that includes a yukata summer kimono fitting, lunch, afternoon tea, or dinner at the hotel, and a half-off discount on admission to the exhibition. The kimono is even yours to keep and take home with you, and Yukata Plan reservations can be made here (both men’s and women’s yukata are available).

Wano Akari x Hyakudan Kaidan: A Riot of Demons runs from July 4 to September 23, and the Yukata Plan from July 4 to August 31.

Related: Hotel Gajoen Tokyo official website
Source: PR Times, Hotel Gajoen Tokyo
Top image: PR Times
Insert images: PR Times, Hotel Gajoen Tokyo (1, 2, 3)
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[ Read in Japanese ]