Sadly, the Hotel Gajoen was sold, and they closed it on October 1, 2025, including the Gajoen Gallery and the Hundred Steps. The Hundred Steps is a National Cultural Treasure, so I hope they preserve them within whatever building is going to take the hotel’s place. No reopening date or plans for what will replace the hotel has been announced yet.
The Hotel Gajoen Gallery is well worth seeing even when it’s not hosting an exhibit, because the gallery itself is a work of art! You know you’re in for an Experience with a capital “E” the moment you step into the elevator, which is a jewel box of polished lacquer inlaid with mother-of-pearl. The over-the-top opulence feels un-Japanese until you start noticing the details…
Crafted in 1928 at the peak of Art Deco, each gallery room is painted by a different famous artist, and they’re connected by a Tangible Cultural Property staircase called the Hundred Steps.
Naturally, there are only ninety-nine. BECAUSE JAPAN.
In fact, the Hundred Steps perfectly—and hilariously—illustrates the unique form that hubris takes in Japan. The man who built the “Hyakudan Kaidan” decorated these rooms in the most lavish and opulent ways known to man—even to this day, it boggles—then gave the smallest possible nod to humbleness by removing one of the Hundred Steps. This makes the entire construction imperfect in a way that calls attention to his humility by people constantly asking why something that’s called the Hundred Steps only has ninety-nine.
The walls and ceiling of each room are painted to depict the changing seasons…
and display the unique style of each artist.
It’s clear that no expense was spared, because the cabinetry, carved wooden screen dividers and pillars framing the tokonoma alcove are also exquisitely crafted and made of rare woods.
The rooms along the stairs are cozy and dark—the better to highlight the paintings—but the expansive room at the very top of the stairs is filled with light and looks out on the garden beyond.
Even the old toilet room is a work of art!
And the exhibitions they stage in these rooms are brilliantly curated. Organized around traditional themes (like Girls’ Day or Japanese folk tales), they feature artists who are masters of time-honored techniques like pierced bamboo…
temari thread-wrapped balls…
or vintage kimonos…
but use them in fun, modern ways, like these “Fox Wedding” dolls…
or these tongue-in-cheek “lucky maneki neko cats” that each represent one day of the year.
As you can see, the art is paired perfectly with each room…
And one of the great things about this museum also being a gallery is that most of the art in the exhibition is for sale! If you fall in love with something, you may be able to buy it (or something by the same artist) in the gift shop. (Which, by the way, is one of the best gift stores in Tokyo, but only accessible to those with tickets to the exhibition.)
And the gallery isn’t the only part of the Hotel Gajoen that’s worth visiting! Renowned as a high-end wedding venue, its dramatic entrance is a shrine to matrimony…
where every detail continues to showcase the Japanese arts…
and which preserves a lot of the original construction’s art masterpieces, like these carved murals depicting life in the pleasure quarter.
I hope I’ve persuaded you that the Gajoen is a hidden gem that’s well worth the ten-minute walk from Meguro Station!
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Hotel Gajoen Gallery
Open: The hotel is open every day
but the Hundred Steps gallery is only open during exhibitions.
Hours: 11:00 – 18:00
(but can vary, so check the website for current information)
Admission: Price varies by exhibition
Current and upcoming exhibitions can be checked (in English) on the
Hotel Gajoen website
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And here are the other places I take my friends when they come to town
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Jonelle Patrick writes novels set in Japan, produces the monthly e-magazine Japanagram, and blogs at Only In Japan and The Tokyo Guide I Wish I’d Had
Jonelle Patrick writes about Japan 