Beniya Mukayu

Beniya Mukayu stands on a hill above the hot-spring town of Yamashiro Onsen in Kaga, Ishikawa Prefecture, about 40 minutes from Kanazawa. The Nakamichi family run it, and the present Mr Nakamichi is the third generation; their first change, about 30 years ago, was a lobby floor made from local diatomaceous earth. The architect Sei Takeyama shaped the modern buildings, which the MICHELIN inspector reads as a natural step on from traditional Japanese style, tranquil to an almost comical degree. There are 16 rooms, each facing the garden and each with its own natural hot-spring bath in the open air; four have futons on tatami and the rest have Western beds, for two guests at most. There are also shared onsen baths and a sauna, three libraries, pines some 300 years old, and a spa beside a round black pool by the designer Kenya Hara. Dinner is a kaiseki tasting menu with no à la carte, with sushi or seasonal dishes such as snow crab as upgrades, and breakfast is Japanese or Western. The Nakamichis serve matcha themselves and explain its meaning. Children under seven are not accepted.