パレスホテル東京は、日本で古来より受け継がれてきた数々の伝統技術を取り入れています。まずは「左官壁」。四季を通じ、緑の森から放たれる、清冽な空気の中に立つホテルにふさわしいものとなるよう、職人が徹底して土にこだわりました。多彩な技法で仕上げた壁や床は、照明を受けてやわらかな陰影やしっとりとした光沢を生み出しています。横引きが一般的な左官壁を縦にしたユニークな壁も作られました。4色のグラデーションに塗り分けられた壁の境に、黒漆喰で仕上げた縦線を入れることで、伝統の中に現代性を演出しています。一方「なぐり彫り」の床は、独特の凹凸により木目が際立ち、木肌の滑らかさが心地よく足の裏から伝わります。日本画や襖絵に用いる「泥」による壁面装飾も創作されました。銀の粉末を膠で練り刷毛で引く「銀泥」によって、琳派をイメージした、竹の力強さや風になびくススキの柔軟な姿が描かれています。更紗の型紙をイメージした透かし彫りの壁は、ホテル周辺の草花が影絵のように浮かび上がります。1本の木曾檜を細かく割り、手作業で模様を組み上げた「組子細工」は、天地創造をテーマにすべての生命の誕生と繁栄を表現。同じく天地創造をテーマにした「截金細工」は、線状に切った金箔や銀箔を貼り合わせる技法で、植物の躍動感や生命感、優美なフォルムを描き出しています。これらの伝統の技には、日本が、そしてパレスホテル東京が、長い歴史の中で育ててきた美学や礼節、おもてなしの心が込められています。

Palace Hotel Tokyo has incorporated numerous traditional techniques handed down in Japan since ancient times. The first of these is the plastered walls. Craftsmen have been painstakingly thorough in their choice of earths and clays to ensure that the result is appropriate for a hotel that stands in air of forest clarity, throughout the seasons. Lighting against beautifully finished walls and floors produces soft shadows and rich glossy surfaces. Unique walls have been created by vertical plastering where horizontal techniques would normally be used. Insertion of a vertical line of black plaster at the edges of walls painted in gradations of color gives a modern edge to a traditional look. Chestnut floors finished using the naguri method display a unique textured finish that makes the grain stand out, while the smoothness of the polished surface is comforting to the soles of the feet. Wall decorations have been created with paint used in Japanese Nihonga paintings and on traditional fusuma sliding doors. Silver paint made by mixing silver powder with glue has been used to depict the strength of bamboo and the flexible nature of pampas grass swaying in the wind, in the style of the traditional Rinpa school of painting. Flowers found in the environs of the hotel appear in silhouette on walls textured to resemble batik. In the craft of kumiko saiku, single pieces of kiso hinoki cypress have been finely crafted by hand to represent the theme of creation, the generation and flourishing of all life. Kirikane saiku, with the same creation theme, uses a technique of bonding strips of silver and gold leaf into shapes to depict the liveliness and the life force of plants in graceful forms. Cultivated over a long history, these traditional crafts embody the esthetics, the culture and the spirit of hospitality of Palace Hotel Tokyo and of Japan.