Sekiyo翠薑注 石葉

Sekiyo is an eight-room former villa that was converted into a ryokan designed to feel like a retreat, not a hotel. The building uses traditional sukiya-style architecture, the teahouse-rooted style, with thin wooden screens, small courtyards, and a deliberate visual quietness. A curated art programme runs through the common spaces. There is a library. The scale is such that you will rarely see another guest outside of dinner.

The bath source is private to the inn: Wakakusayama 126, a sodium-chloride alkaline spring. Because Sekiyo does not share the municipal blended spring used by much of the town, the water character here is its own. The public baths and the in-room baths both draw from the same source. The cleaning cadence and source-fed flow status should be confirmed directly with the inn at booking; the ultra-luxury category does not publish detailed per-bath water handling in public material.

Dining is kaiseki served in-room - two seatings a night for dinner, a lighter breakfast - with a menu that follows Sagami Bay ingredients (seasonal fish, small shellfish) and mountain seasonal items (wild vegetables in spring, matsutake in autumn). Meals are paced slowly. Eight rooms at a kaiseki pace means the kitchen is deliberate rather than volume-driven.

For foreign visitors: the check-in flow assumes Japanese, but Sekiyo’s international booking presence on Ikyu and its luxury-tier positioning mean English communication is available at the front desk. Reservations at least six weeks out for weekends, more for peak seasons. Cancellation terms are strict in the ultra-luxury bracket - read the policy on Ikyu before booking.

Address: Wakakusayama slope, Yugawara, Ashigarashimo District, Kanagawa

Access: About 10 minutes by taxi from Yugawara Station.

Tier: ultra-luxury

Rooms: 8 rooms

Price range: ¥50,000+ per person (with dinner + breakfast)

Dining: Kaiseki, served in-room

Highlights:

• Only 8 rooms - maximum privacy
• Private hot-spring source (Wakakusayama 126)
• Sukiya-zukuri architecture
• Curated art collection + in-house library
• In-room kaiseki

Source: Private spring source, Wakakusayama 126 (sodium-chloride alkaline).

Baths: Public baths + in-room baths, both drawing the private source. Confirm source-fed flow status by bath when booking.

These are points where the platforms and official pages we consulted gave us conflicting information.

• Bath water handling: The inn’s private-source positioning suggests source-fed flow, but public materials do not break out source-fed versus recirculated status by bath. Confirm with the inn directly at booking if this matters to your decision.

• Official site (Japanese)
• Sekiyo - Ikyu (English)