Located in Kyoto’s picturesque Okazaki district- renowned for the Heian-jingū Shrine, museums, libraries and other cultural institutions-and facing the historical Lake Biwa Canal, Travelers Inn offers reasonably priced accommodation. The hotel reopened in 2014 following renovation, offering wheelchair access and attracting visitors with Ki-Yan’s impressive murals on the walls and ceiling of the reception and Cafe Green Box. The flowers used in this work were inspired by the garden of the neighbouring Heian-jingū, and symbolize the four seasons: peony for spring, cotton rose for summer, itogiku chrysanthemum for autumn, and camellia for winter.
Based on a special request made by Taisushi’s owner, the restaurant has decided not to provide an introduction in English, as it is not able to accommodate non-Japanese speaking customers. ‘As we are not able to provide any service or explanation in English, we ask those requiring English assistance to choose a different sushi bar. Thank you for your understanding.’ <taisushi’s owner>
Located in the Kyoto Karasuma Hotel, the Chinese restaurant Toh-Lee serves elegant Kyoto style dishes based on Cantonese cuisine. Both lunch and dinner have maintained a long-standing popularity with a wide range of customers. Restaurant guests are welcomed by Ki-Yan’s set of two A-Un Tigers hanging near the windows facing Karasuma Street. These tigers are the artist’s playful interpretation of komainu (guardian lion-dogs)-the paired animal statues usually found at the entrance of Japanese shrines and temples. However, Toh-Lee’s private room holds the artist’ s main work: the cute but dangerous-looking silver tigers-painted on an ice-green wall behind real bamboo-who will be watching r as you dine at the round table.
This family-owned restaurant offers mainly obanzai (traditional Kyoto cuisine) style Japanese, Chinese and Western homemade dishes made with fresh seasonal ingredients and sold by weight. Choose freely from the various lunch and dinner menu items, or find those items that best complement your choice of sake. Founded in 1951, Adachi has maintained its popularity among locals as well as domestic and foreign tourists. The restaurant features an iconic window of Ki-Yan’ s flying kyö yasai (Kyoto vegetables) and seafood-images that suddenly came to the artist just after finishing the impressive murals inside the restaurant.
The newly reconstructed Hatoya Hot Spring Zuihōkaku Hotel reopened in 2014 and features Ki-Yan’s work in the large bath of the onsen (hot springs) on the top floor. Filled with water collected from 910 meters below ground, the onsen offers you an opportunity to relax while gazing upon Ki-Yan’s lucky motifs of bottle gourds, nanten (nandin) and unkin (sakura cherry blossoms and Japanese maple leaves). To create this unusual piece of art, Team Ki-Yan travelled to Shigaraki in Shiga prefecture and used a special technique to paint these lucky motifs on 60cm on 4 sides ceramic plates. While at Hatoya you can find another piece of Ki-Yan’s work: a wall painted with 1220 doves, Initially a temporary wall put up around construction work, the piece was eventually moved to Hatoya’s roof garden for permanent display.