Why Via Inn is the go-to hotel for creatives in Japan

Toru Yamanaka’s international acclaim has been decades in the making. The avant-garde tunesmith’s post-minimal and ambient theatre music for the Dumb Type art collective is enjoying a renaissance some 40 years after it was first made, thanks to a new series of globally distributed vinyl releases from Tokyo-based label collective Conatala.

Meanwhile, Yamanaka remains a towering figure in Kyoto’s underground scene as the co-organiser of the legendary drag party Diamonds Are Forever, where he’s been DJing for more than 30 years. Stopping by his room at Via Inn Kyoto Shijo Muromachi, we picked the master’s brain about his adopted home town and composing in hotels.

Do you ever make music in hotel rooms?

Yeah, when I’m touring overseas, I need to fine-tune my stuff to match the venue and the performer’s vibe, and there’s no place like a hotel to help you focus on that. During the pandemic, I spent two weeks in quarantine at a hotel in Taiwan, where I immersed myself in composing during the day and watched movies all night.

We hear you’ve stayed at Via Inn Kyoto Shijo Muromachi before?

Right, when I was holding a workshop at the Kyoto Art Center right across the street. It was super convenient, since commuting from Osaka would have been a pain. I was born in Osaka and went to university there, but I’ve been coming to Kyoto constantly since I was a student. I’ve always thought that Kyoto has so many interesting places and people.

How did Diamonds Are Forever start?

In the ’80s, I went clubbing in New York with the late Teiji Furuhashi, who also played in a band with me and had invited me to Dumb Type. The experience opened my eyes, and I felt that without clubs, Japan’s culture would become incredibly backward. So I helped start Diamonds Are Forever in Osaka in 1989, and moved it to Kyoto the following year after Club Metro opened.

Via Inn Kyoto Shijo Muromachi

551-2 Yamabushiyamacho Nishikikoji-agaru, Muromachi-dori, Nakagyo, Kyoto.