Masao Ono: Regenerating Kyo-machiya and Inheriting History

In February of that year, I encountered a Sukiya-style machiya along the "Nene-no-michi" path near Kodai-ji Temple in Kyoto, which now houses the CAMPTON headquarters. Through that connection, I was able to start the business. At that time, I was asked, "There is someone who wants to sell a machiya; would you like to buy it?" Since there were already places offering machiya as lodging, I thought this could be a business and might be interesting.

From the perspective of preserving Kyoto's streetscape and regenerating Kyo-machiya, CAMPTON's major policy is to take poorly maintained machiya and regenerate them into charming traditional houses rather than tearing them down to build new ones. This is based on the idea that land is not the only protagonist of real estate; the time and history cultivated by a building cannot be bought.

A 100-year-old wooden house has a charm and history equivalent to those years. If you destroy a building with that history and build a new one, it would take another 100 years for that new building to have 100 years of history. You cannot shorten that time to give it the same flavor.

Within the economic activity of buying, building, and profiting in the market, we use the ryokan (inn) business to pass on time and history that can never be bought to the present day through buildings. We operate with the awareness that we are participants in a long history mediated by these buildings, and that we are temporary custodians of this history and time.

There are many beautiful machiya left in the city of Kyoto. However, maintaining a machiya takes a tremendous amount of money and effort, so those who keep them in beautiful condition are wealthy people. We don't usually get the chance to have those handed over to us. The properties we have the opportunity to purchase are houses that are quite damaged and where the owners are considering converting them from a machiya to a modern detached house, or houses in good locations in the city that have become vacant because the owners live in apartments due to the buildings being old and inconvenient.

We apply white plaster to the exterior walls and attach charred cedar boards to create a so-called machiya style. However, there are houses where the original exterior has been covered with corrugated iron or siding roofs. Our business is to properly restore them to their original machiya state.

It is often said that dealing with people in Kyoto is difficult, but in our case, we have been very well looked after from the beginning. We have had people from Kyoto join as shareholders and form partnerships, and we have operated while being taught the unique business customs and culture of Kyoto. Of course, there were struggles in understanding Kyoto culture, but they have been kind to us, seeing us as outsiders who are working hard.

My basic principle in doing business is "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." If you assert yourself too much just because you have knowledge, you will definitely face pushback. I think it is important to figure out how to convey what you want to do within that context.

Some properties are over a hundred years old, and the interiors are inconvenient unless you put a lot of work into them. On the first floor, we install floor heating everywhere, including the bathroom floor, and for bedrooms, we basically install beds instead of futons.

Also, we are particular about the bathtubs and use Koyamaki (Japanese umbrella pine). Maki wood is strong enough to be used for the bottom plates of ships, so it is resistant to water and has a wonderful scent when filled with hot water. Since we weren't originally hotel people, we have no choice but to study on our own. We try to incorporate the good points of various hotels and ryokans, listen to people, and put that into practice.

I have been helped by many women in particular. The logo on my business card was drawn by a female calligrapher. When I told a former geiko (geisha) introduced by her that I was looking for amenities, she introduced me to "Kyoto Chidoriya," which we now provide. We offer the same amenities as famous hotels like the Hyatt Regency Kyoto and Chōrakukan.

I am also very close to the proprietress of the long-established restaurant Kodaiji Wakuden next door, and she introduces guests to us.

I took it from my favorite hotel among all the ones I've stayed at. It's a hotel in San Francisco called Campton Place. This hotel has no automatic doors except for the elevator. When you pull up in a car, a porter comes to take your luggage, a doorman opens the door, and the porter carries your luggage to your room. It's a hotel that truly makes guests happy, making things luxurious through human hands the moment you enter.

So, I named it "Campton," using a bit of a British-style pronunciation.

Like a detached vacation rental, we operate on the premise of not serving meals, positioning ourselves right in the middle between a hotel and a traditional ryokan that serves meals.

To begin with, Kyoto's food is more varied and delicious if you eat out (laughs). Besides, while we call it Kyoto cuisine, guests from overseas will probably get bored if they eat it for two or three nights, and Kyoto is an international city with many different types of restaurants. We provide services to meet requests such as making reservations at top-tier restaurants or asking caterers to bring food to the lodging.

The first two buildings we opened can accommodate up to six people, and the room rate per night exceeds 100,000 yen. Initially, I thought about going with that one price whether there were two or six people. However, if I did that, it would become the most expensive on all hotel booking sites (laughs).

So, we now have a rate structure where the room price increases depending on the number of people. I hope to realize a single flat price in the future, though.

Basically, it's inbound travelers—people from overseas. Based on my previous experience in overseas business, I thought I might be able to bring customers to Kyoto.

Looking at the number of nationalities in the guest book, it's probably about half Japanese and half overseas guests. However, in terms of total nights stayed, overseas guests are overwhelmingly more numerous.

That's right. Conversely, Japanese people almost only stay for one night. It feels like a one-night stay for a special occasion. The most prominent Japanese guests recently are "girls' trips." There are many groups of four to six women in their 40s or 50s who gather in Kyoto to have fun with friends from their student days.

In a hotel, rooms are separate, but in our place, even if the sleeping areas are separate, there is a living-room-like space where everyone can gather, which is very well-received. On the other hand, overseas guests are often families and stay for at least three nights.

I was there for 12 years. At Sumitomo Realty, I was mainly involved in the residential field, working on the development of new condominiums. There was a time when I built condominiums on land I bought myself and sold them myself.

Around 1994-95, while I was doing financial work, I had dealings with people from foreign banks and learned about the fund business—a method of doing business with investors' money rather than your own. Through that, I was introduced to a person in charge of transactions with wealthy individual Japanese clients at Citibank Private Bank, and that person invited me to do overseas real estate business together at Citi.

I was feeling stressed by the "scrap and build" philosophy in new condominium development, so I moved from Sumitomo Realty to Citibank in 2000.

Exactly five years, from August 2000 to July 2005. I was seconded from the private bank division and, as Vice President of the private bank division of an affiliated trust bank, I developed real estate investment products for wealthy individual Japanese clients. There was no other place that was so fun, where I could do what I wanted, and where I was so well-evaluated.

I was selected as a top performer in my second year at the company. I went to Barcelona with my wife, whom I had just married, for a board meeting that gathered top performers from around the world, and I was honored there.

Around that time, a strong feeling began to sprout that I wanted to carefully bring old buildings back to life without tearing them down. So, together with the person from Citi who invited me, we created a fund management company to bring historical buildings back to life in the present day overseas.

First, we used the fund to purchase dilapidated stone buildings from the 1500s and 1600s along the canals in the old city of Amsterdam. We renovated the interiors to modern specifications without changing the exterior, making them sparkling clean and finding tenants. Law firms and architectural firms moved in. We purchased about 13 or 14 such buildings, and one of them was even used for a movie shoot.

When I say a building is brought back to life, I don't just mean its appearance; I believe it only truly comes back to life when it is used. The culmination of that was an investment project for a former noble's palace in Vienna, Austria.

That palace had about 6,000 tsubo (approx. 20,000 sqm) of land and about 5,000 to 6,000 tsubo of building space. It had wings on both sides, and after renovation, we leased one side to a post office and the other to a bank. In the center building, there was a hall that was originally like a stage for high society, so we leased that as a rehearsal hall for the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, and the upper floors were divided into small SOHO-style units. We renovated the interior, including security, to withstand use by a bank without changing the exterior. That's how we brought buildings from the good old days back to life.

So, doing machiya regeneration in Kyoto now is a complete coincidence, but there is definitely a connection in terms of my feelings. I want to value and bring back to life old buildings and streetscapes. I just love buildings.

With the upcoming opening in Nishijin, there are now four buildings. There are two buildings on one site there. The main house can accommodate up to nine people, and the detached house can accommodate five. They can be stayed in separately by nine and five people, or used by a single party of 14. A whole-house rental facility of this scale is rare, so I think it will be useful for three-generation stays and such. In 2017, two more buildings are scheduled for completion in Gosho Minami.

I have always wanted to create a company that lasts for 100 years, so one goal might be to build up assets, cash flow, and third-party credit that can withstand that.

I believe the biggest factor in creating a long-lasting company is the absence of internal division. Most companies don't collapse due to external pressure. No matter how difficult things get, if there is unity within the company, I think we can manage to hold on. Therefore, the thing I pay the most attention to in continuing the company is communication with employees. I talk to them daily, and when they finish something, I praise them, saying "thank you" or "well done."

I have a vice president under me, and I want to make him, who has helped me for many years, the president. I want to hand over the presidency after making the company one that I can properly pass on to him without causing him unnecessary hardship.

It was the summer of my second year at Kumagaya High School in Saitama. At Koshien, in the second round, we played against Konan High School, the representative of Okinawa Prefecture, whose ace was the southpaw Koji Nakada, who later played for the Hanshin Tigers.

I still think part of the reason we lost that game lies with me. With one out and runners on first and third, I was the runner on third. If I had been sacrificed and gotten out on the next batter's third-base grounder, there might have still been a chance, but I couldn't move from third base and it ended in a double play.

I couldn't charge for home at that time. I got nervous and froze for just that moment, thinking that the baseball I had been enjoying with my third-year seniors might come to an end.

Looking back now, I feel that opportunities only last for a moment. Therefore, when I decide to do something, I try not to hesitate as much as possible.

In university, I also wanted to do things other than baseball, so while enjoying hardball baseball with Patrick, I also did semi-varsity competitive skiing. Also, outside of club activities, I spent most of my time working part-time jobs. I remember doing over 30 different types of part-time jobs.

I even did hotel bed-making. That is incredibly useful now. I can give instructions myself (laughs).

Thank you very much for today.