A Japanese resort company has turned an iconic former prison into a 48-room luxury hotel.
The former Nara Prison, built in 1908 and designated a cultural property in Japan in 2017, reopened in June as Hoshinoya Nara Prison Hotel, a luxury hotel operated by Hoshino Resorts.
The complex features a star-like design, with five detention wings fanning out from a central command post. The entire development spans 25 acres and includes the Nara Prison Museum, per a press release from Hoshino Resorts.
Since its opening, the hotel has been especially popular with international guests and travelers interested in architecture, history, and culture, the hotel’s general manager, Masaya Kakegawa, told Business Insider.
What were once prison cells have been combined and converted into guest rooms. There are three room types, the largest of which is the “11-Cell Deluxe,” with a living area and dressing lounge.
Nightly rates start at $245, though prices vary depending on the season.
Many of the prison’s original architectural details have been preserved, including hand-laid brick walls and the building’s original ceiling moldings.
“Rather than hiding its past, we wanted guests to physically feel that history as they move through the space,” Kakegawa said.
Even the hallways retain many of the prison’s original details, including green wooden cell doors with inspection slots, ventilation hatches, and room numbers, Kakegawa said.
Above the hallways, the original skylights and steel reinforcement beams are still visible.
The biggest challenge during the nearly seven-year renovation was figuring out how to preserve the prison’s historic features while making it comfortable enough to operate as a luxury hotel, Kakegawa said.
The former prison also served as a filming location for the second season of Netflix’s Japanese series “Alice in Borderland.”
Set in an alternate universe, the series follows Tokyo residents forced to compete in battle royale-style death games to return to the real world.
Two episodes, from the show’s “Jack of Hearts” arc, were filmed in the Nara prison. In them, the character Chishiya is trapped in a penitentiary and must find his way out.
Nara Prison was one of the first five Western-style detention facilities designed by Japan’s government in the Meiji era, which ended in 1912. The city of Nara is east of Osaka.
It was renamed the Nara Juvenile Prison in 1946 and housed prisoners between 16 and 26. At the prison, inmates were tasked to learn vocational skills such as cutting hair and making license plates in workshops.
The prison complex, mostly built by prison workers, features a Romanesque-style main gate that towers over its surrounding walls and guards the front yard to a two-story administrative building.
Attached to the administrative building is a central watch house, from which guards could see all five of the prison’s wards. Grilles in the second-level floors allowed guards to observe cells on both levels at once.
Single-occupancy cells featured a toilet, sink, a window, and a heavy wooden door with no knobs, meaning it couldn’t be opened from the inside even if unlocked.
Back then, the entire complex could house around 635 inmates.
Plans to transform the prison into a hotel were first announced in 2017, when the prison was closed and designated a cultural site.
Kakegawa said Nara has traditionally been viewed as a day-trip destination, and that he hopes the hotel will encourage more visitors to stay overnight.
“We hope this facility serves as a catalyst for shifting towards stay-based tourism, helping to showcase Nara’s full charm to the world,” he said.
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