Brand Story of the World’s Oldest Business that Family Runs 1300 years After

Awazu, in the Ishikawa area, sat 20 kilometers away from the Mt Hakusan on one of the archipelagoes in Japan. About 1300 years ago, the god of the mountain saw the villagers’ need for wellness, and hatched plans to meet it.

It took a Buddhist monk and his disciple Garyo Hoshi a bone-wracking climb up Mt Hakusan to get this vision. Down from the mountain, the two hoofed it to the village to see the lay of the land. The resource they needed for the vision, a hot spring, lay buried below the earth.

The execution fell on Hoshi, the least of the three. With conviction, he set about the excavation and construction, and eventually Hoshi Ryokan Inn opened shop in 718.

Villagers came dipping in, with faith that they got their healing.

The generation after Hoshi kept up the legend, and the resort became an inn. Forty-five generations till date, the Hoshis still manage the inn.

Hajime Hoshi, the scion of the current generation, plans to pass on the ownership and management to his daughter.

On Hoshi Ryokan’s premises stand four structures boasting of about 100 rooms which a Zen garden hems in. Hip and ancient cultures flourish at the same time. Likewise business. For its cushy offering futon beds and other services, the inn charges no peppercorn rate.

The inn once made the Guinness World Record as the world’s longest running family business.