Kitchen, Miyanoshita Fuijya Hotel, c. 1930.

See also:
Fujiya Hotel, Miyanoshita

“The finest and most scientific kitchen I have seen anywhere in the hotel world was in the Fujiya Hotel. The proprietor, Mr. Yamaguchi, understands the international stomach as no other innkeeper I met in Japan and I spent a couple of hours in his kitchen.

“‘I have served my apprenticeship in the hotel kitchens of the world,’ he told me. ‘I have always been disappointed because they have so often been squatty and unventilated quarters, frequently in the cellars or basements. In my hotel, I have given up – as you see – the very heart of it to the kitchen.’

“Indeed the roof was twenty or more feet from the floor and was largely composed of sliding glass windows through which sun and air poured. The sanitary arrangements were well-nigh perfect. The economy was magical. The system of calling and filling orders compared favorably with that in vogue in the most scientifically run American caravansaries.”

– “The Inns and Outs of Japan”, by Henry Albert Phillips, Japan Overseas Travel Magazine, January 1931