Founded in 1899, Chigasaki Kan is one of the last inns of its kind in Shonan, once the regular lodging of Yasujiro Ozu and other directors from Shochiku's golden age. The scripts for Tokyo Story, Late Spring, and Early Summer were all written within its walls.
The 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake destroyed most of the original inn, leaving only its large bathroom standing, a room that survived even the 2011 earthquake. A later renovation dismantled it, and Room Two, Ozu's favorite, has been unable to host guests without bathing facilities ever since. Rebuilding the bathhouse requires roughly $200,000.
Room Two, Reopened
Ozu's favorite room, where he wrote Father Was There, Late Spring, and Tokyo Story over more than a decade of stays, has been closed to guests since the bathhouse was lost, and backers will be the first invited to stay there again.
A Filming Location Since Ozu's Day
Chigasaki Kan appears in Kirin Kiki's final film, in Jane by Charlotte at the Cannes Film Festival, and in a Leica SL2-S mini documentary, carrying on its century long role as a place where stories are made.
