Four Seasons Hotel Osaka Opens With a Modern Ryokan Floor

Four Seasons Hotel Osaka opened on 1 August 2024 in Dojima, the district between the city’s main station and the Nakanoshima riverfront that was the centre of the rice trade in the Edo period. The hotel occupies floors 28 to 37 of One Dojima, a 49-storey tower, and has 175 rooms and suites.

Its most original feature is on the 28th floor. Gensui is a floor of 21 rooms conceived as a modern ryokan, with tatami underfoot, sliding screens, low seating and futon-style beds, a separate reception with tea served on arrival, and its own lounge. It allows guests to experience the manners of a Japanese inn within an international hotel, an idea that had not been tried in Osaka. The remaining rooms, from 43 square metres, are contemporary, with full-height windows over the city.

The interiors were shared among several designers, including the Tokyo studio Curiosity, led by Gwenaël Nicolas, for the public spaces and rooms, and Simplicity, the studio of Shinichiro Ogata, for the ryokan floor.

There are six places to eat and drink. Jiang Nan Chun is a Cantonese restaurant that takes its name from the Four Seasons restaurant in Singapore. Sushi L’Abysse Osaka is a collaboration with the Paris restaurant of chef Yannick Alléno, where French technique meets Edomae sushi. Jardin is the all-day restaurant, Bar Bota the bar, Farine a bakery and Cha a tea lounge. The 36th floor is given to wellness, with a 16-metre pool, five treatment rooms, Japanese baths and saunas.

The opening was the first of two that changed the standing of Japan’s second city. It was followed eight months later by Waldorf Astoria Osaka, north of the station, and both arrived in time for Expo 2025. Osaka has long been the place where Japan goes to eat, from street food in Dotonbori to some of the country’s most inventive kaiseki, and it is fifteen minutes from Kyoto by shinkansen. It now has the hotels to match.