Sleep Among the Art in Tokyo

BnA (Bed and Art) is an independent chain of hotels developed by a Tokyo-based collective, allowing for travellers to immerse themselves in the Japanese capital’s art scene. While the Japanese art market remains relatively quiet on an international scale, the group hopes to draw attention to its main players.

The main site developed by the collective is a small hotel in the art district Koenji, where visitors can sleep in a room decorated entirely by a local artist who is paid per reservation. The space is thought out so as to encourage conversation, when guests visit the hotel bar, they’re likely to run into local artists, for whom the hotel has become the place to be. ‘We’ve had spontaneous painting sessions breakout between local artists and hotel guests who happened to be artists themselves‘, says one of the founders.  

The start-up, which plans to open a 31 room hotel in Kyoto in the coming months, also provides an Airbnb-like service with a five bedroom apartment in the central district of Chiyoda. Here guests can make the most of the artworks in the quiet of their own space, unlike the Koenji hotel which has garnered a certain reputation for its wild parties.