In 717, a Buddhist monk was meditating on Mount Hokusan in the Ishikawa prefecture of Japan, when the guardian of the mountain appeared to him in a dream.
Twenty-three kilometers from the foot of the mountain lay the village of Awazu, in Komatsu, with an underground spring that could heal sicknesses.
The monk instructed the villagers to unearth the spring, and his disciple Garyo Hoshi to build an inn on the site for posterity.
The monk built a temple on the mountain, and word spread of the miraculous spring. Today, 46 generations later, the Hoshi family continues to welcome visitors to Hoshi Ryokan (ryokan is a traditional Japanese inn).
Hoshi Ryokan was listed in Guinness as the oldest surviving hotel in the world, until 2011, when another ryokan, Nishiyama Onsen Keinunkun, took the title, with a founding year of 705.
A serene blend of old and new, Hoshi Ryokan, with its garden, pond and 100 rooms capable of catering to 450 guests at a time, has evolved to adapt to the modern world.
Ong Boon Hwee, CEO of Stewardship Asia Centre based in Singapore, interviewed current ryokan head Zengoro Hoshi about what makes the inn endure. (Hoshi’s earliest ancestor adopted a boy named Zengoro, a name used in every succeeding generation.)
“Traditionally, we have no instruction written on paper,” says Hoshi. “We teach by word of mouth. We have to study for ourselves.”
As for training successors, Hoshi says, “[We] let them try first by themselves. If that [method] did not work, then the parents or grandparents would teach them. It is important that motivation arises from inside of the successors.”
As a child, Hoshi loved the rooms where the children used to play hide and seek. Hostesses and geishas visited, so did heads of state.
Hoshi and his wife, united in an arranged marriage, have been together for more than half a century. In a Vimeo video done by German student Fritz Schumann, Hoshi’s wife says she is “like a mother” of the ryokan.
“When I was young, the owner of the inn was … like the head person of the village, and everybody wanted to succeed the inn,” says Hoshi. “Sometimes younger brothers were jealous of the eldest brother. But today few people have the ability to succeed, and many inns are closing their business.
“Hotels are increasing but inns are decreasing, That is the reality.”
Some years ago, Hoshi’s oldest son and grandson, the supposed heirs, passed away. It was a shock to the family.
“I always thought elderly people would die first,” says Hoshi. “I was not smart enough to realize that [these deaths] could happen.”
Bucking the tradition that only eldest sons could inherit, Hoshi requested his daughter to manage the inn. In Schumann’s video, the daughter, who had trained to be a doctor’s assistant, says she sometimes wishes she were not born a Hoshi.
She had thought of getting married and “moving away,” but her parents now introduce her “only to men who could be adopted to the Hoshi family.”
Obedient to the family code, “nowadays, she is working with determination, which I am grateful for,” says the father.
Hoshi Ryokan has to constantly “exercise agility, challenge and change” to adapt to the times. To balance the needs of guests and employees, the inn closes on certain days of the week. The family has invested in modern systems to enable employees to finish operations within an eight-hour workday.
Hoshi knows the inn is part of the family legacy. Aside from managing the inn, the family has long been tasked “to protect the hot spring.”
“Nothing belongs to me. Do not run away from [a problem], but challenge it. To challenge change is our responsibility.”