Hotel Kyoto. The original Nintendo headquarters, reborn as a hotel. Marufukuro
A factory. A dynasty. A hotel.
Marufukuro is a luxury hotel in Kyoto, set inside the original headquarters of Nintendo — built in 1930 as a playing-card factory, reborn in 2022 as a heritage retreat. The project was structured as a partnership between the hotel and Âme Bohème: a stay in exchange for editorial coverage and a set of photographs for the brand. I shot three of its central spaces — the King Balcony Suite, the library, and the bar — over a single day of Kyoto light.
What I wanted in the frame wasn't 'luxury hotel' — it was the building's two lives: a 1930 playing-card factory underneath, and the hotel built around it. Light does that work better than any prop.
— On the approach, 2023
Suite
with a story.
The King Balcony Suite occupies what was once part of the building's executive offices. I photographed it from both balconies — facing East at sunrise, West at golden hour — to record the same room as the day's light moved across it. The two frames sit together as a diptych: same space, two different buildings.
A library
of legacies.
The library is the building's most contemplative space — a small reading room layered with archival objects, dark wood, and a single ceiling light. I shot it slowly, on a tripod, to keep the room's quiet intact in the frame. No people, no styling, no warmth added in post — just the room as it sits.
Echoes at the bar.
The bar comes alive in late afternoon, when Kyoto light hits the brass and dark wood at the right angle. I shot it in that twenty-minute window — the warmest light of the day, on the warmest material in the building. After that, the room turns ordinary.
