雪那 — The Setsuna

The Setsuna

A still point on the Jade Coast of Japan

Nou · Itoigawa · Niigata

Coming Fall 2027

The eternal setting, the fleeting experience.

A house built for moments that can’t be repeated. A run through untouched powder lasts thirty seconds and stays with you for life.

Where it is

Shaded relief of the coast at Nou in Itoigawa, Niigata. The Sea of Japan fills the upper left; the shoreline runs from the south-west to the north-east. Behind it the land rises immediately into steep ridges cut by the Nou river valley, which reaches inland to the south-east toward the mountains above Charmant Hiuchi.
Nou, Itoigawa · 37.08°N 138.03°E 地理院タイル — Geospatial Information Authority of Japan

What is around it

The train
Hokuriku Shinkansen to Itoigawa, two hours five minutes from Tokyo. Then four stops on the Nihonkai Hisui Line, fifteen minutes, to Nou.
Charmant Hiuchi
Seventeen courses, sixty-five percent ungroomed, thirty-seven degrees at the steepest. The longest run is 2,700 metres. It stays open into May.
The Jade Coast
Nunakawa-hime, the Jade Princess, was born on this shore. After a storm the stones come up green.
Green Messe Nou
Nine holes up the Shimamichi valley. There is a hot spring at the clubhouse, open for the day.
Nou harbour
The boats come in at the foot of Benten-iwa. The fish is sold where it lands.

The house

Four rooms.

It sits in a hollow with its back to the road.

It faces an old stone wall, a koi pond, and the bath.

Nothing about the approach announces what is inside.

Let out whole, to one group at a time.

We will write once, when the doors open.