S P O T ／ SPOT-014

Former Nara Prison (Meiji-Era Heritage Hotel)

旧奈良監獄（ならまちごぜんと）きゅうならかんごく

Built in 1908 as part of a Meiji-era prison modernization initiative, the Former Nara Prison is one of five remaining "Meiji Five Great Prisons" — European-influenced, radially designed correctional facilities whose architecture owes more to Bentham's panopticon than to anything in Japanese building tradition. The prison's red-brick Neo-Gothic exterior and radial cell block layout are extraordinary in a country where almost nothing from that era survives intact. After serving as a juvenile detention facility until 2017, the building was redeveloped as a combination hotel, museum, and heritage attraction, reopening in 2023. Guests now sleep in former cells converted to hotel rooms; day visitors can walk the original radiating corridors, the chapel, and the exercise yard on guided tours. The combination of proximity to Nara Park's deer and temples (all within walking distance) with the option of actually sleeping inside a 120-year-old prison creates a travel experience that exists nowhere else in Japan.