Kentaro Imai Architectural office
FUKUNO-YU 
Fukuno-yu is located at the end of the area called “Yane-Sen” an area where traditional streets and houses remain. There is a shopping street that’s image is of a character of the Seven Gods of Good Luck, and it’s also an area with lot of temples and shrines. So, I proposed the design concept “The Sento that invites fortune”. I aimed to make the FUKUNO-YU with an atmosphere that you can get divine favors there. Well, there is a story that Sentos started because of temples in the ancient times, temples provided bathes to residents so they could purify their minds and bodies. To put it shortly, Sntos and divine favors are naturally associated with each other. The bathrooms are set as “Room of Daikoku-God” and “Room of Benten-God”, both of them are gods from the Seven Gods of Good Luck. The colorful and gorgeous designing was based on a prototype of the Japanese traditional architectural elements such as a Fusumae or a transom sculpture.
