This project was to renovate the spa in the Loisir Hotel Naha, located a short distance from Naha Airport. To differentiate it from “Uminchu no Yu,” the existing spa in the new building that gives off a calm atmosphere suggesting ancient seas, we aimed to make the main building’s “Shimanchu no Yu,” which was to be renovated in this project, an open, relaxing space that brings to mind the Okinawan seas of today.

Nearby is the historical site Mie Castle, which was also depicted in Katsushika Hokusai’s Eight Views of Ryukyu. Working from the Eight Views of Ryukyu as a concept, we designed a long, narrow approach from the reception to the spa using curved walls, based on a motif of the lengthy pier snaking its way back and forth to Mie Castle. The floor and walls are in a light timber, while the walls also use light grey to accentuate the Hokusai blue used in the signs and other features. Further, we have made the corridor in front of the change rooms to look like the seashore and expressed the glittering sand by the use of vinyl tiles with cloth texture on the floor, as well as using custom cloth-textured vinyl tiles with a different color tone and the motif of curving waves in the male and female change rooms.

There are indoor and outdoor hot springs for men and for women; the indoor springs use ceramic tiles in a warm grey that suggests the beach on the walls and floors, while the outdoor springs express the traditional Okinawan art of bingata in the mosaic tile art on the walls. We created a design inspired particularly by the bingata technique called tsutsunuki, which dyes the fabric and leaves white outlines, and depicted butterflies and the nature of Okinawa in vibrant colors reminiscent of bingata.

We hope that this project will become a place where people can soak in an Okinawan natural hot spring to relax, while also getting a visual sense of Okinawa’s seas and nature through the bingata art and other features.