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Couples tie knot in Kobe's historic Western-style homes
Historic Western-style guesthouses in the Kitanocho district here
are increasingly in demand by young couples hoping to tie the knot
or hold wedding receptions in an atmosphere that harks back to the
19th and early 20th century.
 "Many
of those who walk through the Kitanocho district on the weekends are
not just sightseeing. They are couples hunting for venues for
wedding receptions," said Noriko Nobe, a Kobe-based wedding planner.
The Western-style houses are called Ijinkan (foreigners'
mansions) and the main street running through the area is
Ijinkan-dori, although it is now commonly called "Wedding Street"
due to the concentration of wedding planners, guesthouses and
wedding parlors.
When Kobe opened its port in 1868 after Japan threw open its
doors to foreign trade and began its rapid modernization, the influx
of foreigners proved too great for the foreign settlement to
accommodate, so many of them moved into the then undeveloped uptown
area, now the Kitanocho and Yamamoto-dori districts.
By the end of World War II, more than 200 houses, many
Western-style, had been built for foreign residents in the district.
In 1979, when the city designated a 9.3-hectare section of the
Kitanocho district for preservation and registered the Western-style
houses as historic buildings, there were still about 80 left.
However, many of them were destroyed in the 1995 Great Hanshin
Earthquake, and according to Kobe municipal board of education, only
34 Western-style houses and seven Japanese houses constructed in the
early 20th century remain.
Of the Western-style houses, 17 have been opened to the public,
with seven available for couples to hold wedding receptions on
particular days and times, while others have become restaurants or
museums depicting the lives of foreigners in the late 19th century.
Three of them were remodeled as guesthouses especially for weddings.
According to Akira Kawamoto, division officer of Kansai Zexy, a
monthly wedding information magazine, the trend of renting
guesthouses for wedding ceremonies and receptions began in Tokyo
around 1998. In the Kansai region, the first guesthouse to be used
as a venue for this purpose opened in 2002 and the idea quickly
became popular.
According to the magazine, about 15.3 percent of couples who
married in 2005 had receptions at guesthouses, up from 2.2 percent
in 2003, while those who held receptions at hotels dropped to 42.4
percent, down from the 1997 peak of 60.4 percent.
Christian-style wedding ceremonies either at chapels attached to
guesthouses or churches, and civil weddings at guesthouses are
popular with young people. They typically have a small reception
attended by relatives and close friends.
"Couples are placing more importance on a comfortable atmosphere
and originality in their receptions, which explains the popularity
of Western-style houses," said Kawamoto, who believes the trend will
continue for a few years.
Located along a steep slope in Kitanocho, a white wooden house
known as Sassoon House has hosted wedding receptions for about 190
couples annually since it was remodeled in 2002 as a guesthouse by
Kyoto-based Watabe Wedding Co.
"Many of our customers are attracted by the hospitality the house
offers as they can use it for half a day," said Yasuyo Maeda,
director of the Sassoon House.
The house can accommodate up to 50 guests but is limited to two
receptions a day.
Couples who rent Sassoon House spend an average of 1.8 million
yen for a ceremony and reception for 30 people--60,000 yen per
guest--while the average cost per guest for couples who had wedding
ceremonies and receptions at Kobe Portpia Hotel from April to
February was 32,300 yen.
Wedding ceremonies and dessert buffets on the 300-square-meter
lawn of Sassoon House are also popular from April to November.
Another Western-style house, Kobe Kitano Geihinkan Victorian
House Reintei, a wooden two-story private residence built in 1900,
now serves as a modern chapel and has a luxurious area for
receptions after a Kobe-based wedding firm, Copro Co., reinforced
the wooden walls with white plaster and made other changes.
"Because the Western-style house is designated as a historic
building, it will be preserved," said Itsuka Miyoshi, a bridal
coordinator of Copro Co. "So many couples choose it because the
house and the Kitanocho area will keep their memories alive."
Last year, Kobe Kitano Hunter Geihinkan became the sole
city-registered historic Japanese-style house to be used as a
wedding venue.
Takae Miyazono, the house's 70-year-old owner and a beautician
with 50 years of experience, purchased the house to give young
couples an opportunity to experience the best aspects of traditional
Japanese-style weddings, such as wearing an elaborate kimono, and to
celebrate with many guests at a real Japanese -style receptions.
"As a beautician, I was saddened to see young Japanese couples go
to Hawaii, Guam, Bali and other foreign resorts to get married
without inviting their parents or guests," he said.
Apart from Western-style houses used as wedding venues, the
English House and another house known as the former Panamanian
Consulate General began hosting weddings two years ago.
"We've never publicize weddings at these houses, because they are
not designed to be wedding venues, " Nobe said.
Although they have no waiting rooms for guests and the facilities
are somewhat inadequate, couples have asked if they could hold their
wedding receptions in these places, she said.
Kayoko Kobayashi, 26, of Kobe, who invited 40 guests to her
wedding at the English House in November, said, " I chose the place
because I felt great being surrounded by real luxury furniture in an
old house." She also said she was extremely happy to be
congratulated by tourists walking around the district.
Nobe said not only young couples but also couples in their 30s to
40s were thrilled to have their weddings in the houses.
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Boost to tourism
Akisada Miura, chairman of Kobe Ijinkan Association, comprising
operators of 17 Western-style houses in the district, said, "Hosting
weddings in these houses is a perfect way to let people know about
the attractions of this area."
Miura said this move was particularly welcome because visitors to
the area had decreased due to the economic slowdown and negative
image left by the Great Hanshin Earthquake.
According to the Kobe municipal government, visitors to the
Kitanocho district began increasing from 540,000 in 1977 when a
popular TV drama series was set in the area.
The number peaked in 1990 with 1.7 million, but dropped to
410,000 in 1995 when the quake destroyed or damaged many of the
area's historic homes.
The area gradually regained popularity and from 1998 began
attracting about 1.5 million visitors annually.
"Although using Western-style houses for wedding receptions is a
last resort for us to survive the business slowdown, it's important
to preserve them somehow," Miura said.
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Attracting nonresidents
To give Kobe a financial boost, the municipal government is
trying to attract nonresidents to hold wedding ceremonies and
receptions in the city as the wedding industry is closely linked to
many other businesses.
According to the Kobe Convention Bureau, an average of about
9,000 couples a year register their marriages with the municipal
government, while about 12,000 to 15,000 weddings are held annually
in the city, indicating that about 3,000 to 6,000 couples come from
other regions to get married.
"Due to the city's history, we have many churches and exotic
locations suitable for wedding ceremonies or receptions," said
Kensho Ichiyasu of the municipal government's tourism department.
In fact, several Tokyo-based wedding operators have focused on
the positive image of Kobe and constructed several luxurious
reception venues last year.
In the wake of competition from outside the city, representatives
of about 12 wedding-related firms in the city formed Kobe Wedding
Kaigi in February last year and held a seminar in August, attended
by Kobe Mayor Tatsuo Yada, to promote Kobe as a "wedding city."
The group's membership has grown to more than 40 local firms
since the seminar.
Kyoko Taniguchi, a leading member of the convention and an
executive of Office Mermaid, a firm that dispatches masters of
ceremony for receptions, said, "Couples usually invite friends and
relatives who may never have visited Kobe. So by hosting weddings,
we can promote the city's attractions without buying ads," she
added.
To publicize the city's attractions in wake of the newly opened
Kobe Airport, the group is looking for two couples to tie the knot
on the airport's observation deck between mid-May and mid-June.
Either the bridegroom or bride should be a resident of Kobe.
The ceremony, held either Christian-style or as a civil wedding,
will cost only 21,600 yen, which will cover the ceremony, rental
fees for tuxedo and dress, hair, makeup and the bouquet.
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