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Characteristics of the Hospitality,
Omotenashi in the Traditional Japanese Inn :A Case Study of Kagaya
Abdulelah Al-alsheikh and Yoshinobu Sato

Abstract
In this paper, the authors will clarify the characteristics of omotenasi, Japanese hospitality in the traditional Japanese inn. The authors especially analyze the case of Kagaya
that is the most famous Japanese inn. The research question is concerned with theokami’s leadership style. They hypothesize okami’s leadership for omotenashi is basedon the servant leadership and shered with top executives in the inn. They also hypothesize okami’s leadership for omotenashi infect the follower and explain the mechanism of
the infection. Finally they consider the education system to make an effective okami.
The authors discuss the limitation and future research direction.

I

Introduction
In late years Japanese-style of hospitality, omotenashi attracts attention from the world.

Omotenashi, originated in the tea ceremony, is not only a main concept of service delivery inkaiseki restaurant and traditional inn, but also it has been a necessary element in all areas of
the Japanese service industry. In particular, “in lodging industry customers stay the longest
time among the service industry. Because the traditional Japanese inn, ryokan among them has
highly interpersonal customer ratio of services to be provided, and also because of its appearance of the Japaneseness, a customer’s potential expectation for omotenashi grows big”
(Okubo, 2007, p. 28).
In this paper, we clarify the character of omotenashi in the Japanese inn by studying Kagaya
that has been selected to comprehensive evaluation No. 1 in 35 consecutive years from1981 in “the 100 best hotels and inns of Japan which a professional chooses”. The reminder ofthis paper is as follows. We explain our research questions and briefly overview of the previous
studies on the nature of omotenashi in the ryokan in Section 2. In Section 3, while we pick up

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the Kagaya as an object of case study research, the focus of the paper is on the third generation,
president Yoshihiko and landlady, okami Mayumi Odas’ leadership behavior, which dramaticallygrown Kagaya. In Section 4, we theorize the characteristics of “the omotenashi” of theJapanese inn which became clear from a case of Kagaya. Finally we summarize characteristicsof the omotenashi of the Japanese inn and breifly show the limit and future direction of thisstudy in Section 5.

II

The Research Questions and Overview of the Previous Research
The first question to be asked with research about omotenashi provided by the okami of theJapanese inn is “how the okami becomes the okami.” Kang (2013, p. 67) reported the result
as follows from the survey of its 1990 (sample number of 111 cases) about the reason becoming okami. Kang reported that 55 percent became the okami from coming to the daughter-inlaw (wife okami) and 22.5％ became okami of the reason of daughter (daughter okmi).
In addition, Kang (2013, p. 67) quotes the survey by other researcher performed in 2010(137 number of the samples). According to this research, daughter-in-law okami was 47.9％,
daughter okami was 17.9％, 17.1％ became okami because nobody would like to become okami
other than her, and 16.2％ was a founding okami. As for Kagaya, the second generation okami
Taka and the third generation okami Mayumi were also the daughter-in-law okami.
Then what kind of role does an okami play and what kind of ability is required to okami?
About the role of okami, Kang (2013, p. 67) introduces a result of “the survey research about
the role of the okami” that Japan Travel Bureau announced in 1999. The survey classified therole of the okami to 16 items and defined the degree of the okami’s role as 4 items, “okami
decides”, “okami involves”, “okami as as adviser”, and “okami almost not involved.” Whenusing the total percentage of the answer of the former two items, the items in descending order
are as follows.
Customer service (65.7％), equipment and consumables management (60.5％), management of service delivery employees (60.3％), office work charge employee management(57.5％), food menu (48.6％), sales promotion (40.9％), business performance numericalcheck (39.5 percent), managers management (38.6％), cooking department employee management (38.1％), stocking management of in-store kiosks (34.3％), procurement of food materials management (33.2％), development of sales plan(29.5％), management plan (25.3％),
accounting operations (25.7％), and equipment and computer support (18.3％).

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From the above, it is clear that while the role of okami has more related to omotenashi, management of service delivery employees, food menu, sales promotion activities, and check of numerical aspects of business performance, okami’s role is less related to the development ofvarious general business management plans.
Misako Miyake who is a okami of Josenkaku of Kinosaki Onsen and established a okami cramschool in 1996 explained ability necessary for a okami as follows (Kurasawa, 2002, pp. 118119):
The suitability of the okami whom I think about is as the manager to the last. Assuming
okami as a manager, liking to work is located in the first. Because okami is an on-site generalmanager in charge, how to handle person is very important. When okami works energeticallyat the head, employee is stimulated and becomes diligent and by seeing such employee’s movement, she knows how to do to move a person well. Therefore I think that the work in the frontline really increases the business performance.
Then, it is also very important for okami to be liked by people, to give a pleasant impression
on the other party to be in contact with people. Even though service delivery is not okami’s
main work, because the work of the Japanese inn is basically in hospitality industry, I think thatthe type of person darkening the feeling of the other person is impossible to become as okami.
Not only the customers, even employees do not come with the kind of people. Though there
will be the natural character, I guess, after all the character is related to mindset. Because
those who give pleasant feeling during talking with give a bright impression at first glance. I
think that something like healthiness of such a feeling is indispensable to the okami of the inn.
Similarly, Toshiyoshi Yamamoto, management consultant who founded the okami cramschool with Miyake explained as follows (Kurasawa, 2002, p. 127) :I think that the requirements of the person as an okami are spirit, care, and open disposition.
The person who can be called excellent okami possesses these three by all means. I think that
it is above all important three, namely the sprit which stand to bear the inn as a manager, thecare to the tourists and the people around, and the open disposition which makes a visitor feelgood. However it is the present conditions that there are predominantly few okamis who possessed such requirements though an okami is a very important person for an inn. In order toestablish ‘Ginka’ Inn I looked around very many inns with Miyake to refer, but there were a
few respectable okamis whom I thought “This is really an excellent okami”.
Then how should we bring up a okami? Yamamoto of the okami cram school explains it asfollows (Kurasawa, 2002, pp. 127
128):

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Because an okami is a person standing on the top in the concrete thing, she is useless if she
does not understand the feeling of the employee. To that end, I think that it is ideal form to become an okami after having mastered every domain of the work of the inn. It is that purposethat the study of the okami cram school begins at first with restroom cleaning, bath cleaning,
washing table wares in the washing space, laying out a futon and so on. In addition, because theinn is a Japanese peculiar style and is a place such as the extension of the domestic service,
there also has the aspect of important friendly atmosphere with a woman. However, as a top
executive, okami is required the calm judgment that is severer than femininity is required. Of
course okami must be strong in a number, too. Because we must bring up such a various aspects, the training of an okami is a quite difficult thing.
The last question of this research concerns about features of the leadership of the okami. In
this regard, it is the study of sharing relationship of executive leadership with a focus on thefeatures and determinants of the effectiveness of the okami’s leadership style.
At first as for the leadership style of the okami, Kang (2013, pp. 53
78) introduces the findings of the survey that conducted with 110 okamis in 2000 while paying attention to the transformational leadership concept of Bass.
According to her research, while daughter-in-law okami who emphasizes matching the goalof the employees to the organization’s goal and philosophy has a lot of factors of transformational leadership type and is high of charisma, on the contrary the founding okami and daughter
okami who tend to lead the employee by extrinsic motivation such as reward was seen having
a lot of transactional leadership factors. In addition, Kang (2013, pp. 129130) also briefly mentioned about the relationship of the hospitality and the servant-leadership of the okami.
A theme of this research is to check whether the leadership style of the okami is infectedwith a follower based on a recent authentic leadership study. In general, as the characteristics
of authentic readers, the followings have been mentioned (Sato, 2009, p. 4): “The first is a highself-awareness. They grasp their own merits and drawbacks objectively as much as possible.
The second is an internalized moral perspective. They can perform a moral judgment underconsistent their own values. The third is balanced processing of information. They can face upeven adverse information in their own. The fourth is relational transparency. They try to build
and maintain fair relationship with the related people and strive to match words and deeds.”
Sato (2009, pp. 1315) classifies the concrete expression forms of the extremes of theauthentic leadership as the transformational leadership style and servant leadership style.
About the infection to the follower of the leadership style, Gardner et. al(2005) insists that theCharacteristics of the Hospitality, Omotenashi in the Traditional Japanese Inn

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authentic leadership is infected with a follower. Also Winston (2004) insists transmission tofollowers of servant leadership as one of the specific expression form of the authentic leadership.
In fact, it can be thought that it is “the tip of the iceberg” to be considered as a gift of theokami’s leadership in the omotenashi of the inn and under the iceberg exist shared relations (inother words, shared leadership) of the leadership of the top management with the okami.
The result of “the Survey Research about the Role of the Okami” by Japan Travel Bureau
which we introduced earlier really shows the above mentioned fact. As for a okami influencing
decision, the service delivery to a customer plays a key role, and it is thought that it is entrusted to the hand of the president (usually the husband of the okami) and other executives
about the decision making of other general management about the omotenashi. Next, we introduce a case of Kagaya.

III
１

A Case Study about Kagaya
Rapid Growth of the Business by the Third President

Yokichiro Oda had engaged in the agriculture in the Kaga region of Ishikawa Prefecture andmoved to Wakura Onsen of Noto Peninsula and founded Kagaya in 1906. First it had 12 rooms,
but had 232 as of February, 2015 (Kunishida, 2015a, p. 22). It is Sadahiko Oda, who was thethird president and is now Senior Adviser who have realized rapid growth of Kagaya. He left
the home from junior high school days and lodged in Kanazawa-shi. He entered Rikkyo
University and learned the modern management of the hotel afterwards (Oda, 1997c, p. 5).
Sadahiko also entered the club called “Hotel Research Group” of Rikkyo University because
he considered he needs opportunities to practice the learning in the classroom. Sadahiko recalled as follows (Kunishida, 2015c, p. 28):
When I was my 3rd year of university, I wrote a 211-page report that summarized the current status of the Noto Peninsula tourism. The Club members were divided into several teams
to investigate the accommodation and transportation network in the Noto Peninsula. It was
Mayumi of the current okami and my wife who belonged the same group and whom I thought
scary senior. But I also thought she had natural inclination to care for younger members andshe was appropriate person as an okami leading the room clerk of the woman and I made up mymind to get married while I deepened acquaintance with her.
The recollection of Sadahiko continued (Kunishida, 2015d, p. 20):

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It was good efficiency what I have understood while studying a hotel at the university. The
division of labor such as the front desk, room service, laundry and so on was established. On
the other hand, in inns one room clerk is attached to customers and takes care of almost all.
The routinization of business process is difficult, and there are many aspects that are nonefficiency. We should change the name to “the Grand Hotel” so that we are not left behind in
the times. I thought so seriously. “When I talked about my plan to my father in high spirits,
he gave me a good scolding that “Don’t get so excited. The crab makes a hole suited to its
shell. Our inn is too small to make a hotel!” I did not concede and complained the superiorityof the business process of the hotel. I can’t also imagine I can have my cake and eat it too because I was young and inexperienced.
Sadahiko met the senior who could teach the splendor of the inn at the meeting of the industry afterwards. He recollects those days as follows. “At the age of around 30 years old, I met
Michio Fujisawa at a youth group meeting of the association of inn environmental hygiene tradeassociations. He engaged in the inn called “Fuj”iso” in Yamadaonsen of Takayama in Nagano
Prefecture. When I consulted him about my fight with father which was better the inn or the
hotel, he encouraged me ; “As for service, a meal, facilities ... ... Even though the inn is small,you can build everything from the scratchin the case of the inn. You should make a shining inn
as jewelry.” ... There is no need to bring highly fashionable goods from the city. I am okay if
I use treasures in my region. I could understand the goodness of the inn, and imagine the future direction of our inn.
Completion of the “Noto Nagisa-tei”

Sadahiko’s recollection continued (Oda, 1997b, p.

5):
Kagaya has been ranked No. 1 as comprehensive evaluation (facilities, cooking, service, andplanning) of “100 best Japanese inn” planned by Industry newspaper and voted by tour conductors of travel agency etc. continuously from 1981. 1981 was the year when “Noto Nagisa-tei”
of Sukiya style was completed by spending 4 billion yen. After my father was dead, this investment is 39-year-old youngster’s first make‐or‐break decision like a large gambling since becoming president. ...
However, this becames the highest possible home run in my life. In this industry, which issaid to average occupancy rate of 40 percent, that building exceeds the operating rate of 70％.
Without the success of Noto Nagisa-tei, there was not today’s Kagaya.
The Noto Nagisa-tei had been introduced first cooking automatic transport system in inns
and hotels industry. Sadahiko described its purpose as follows (Oda, 1997d, p. 5): “By invest-

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ing 70 million yen, we developed an automatic cuisine transport system that the machine carry
food from the kitchen to the banquet hall and rooms. We could recover the investment in three
and a half years if we converted the savings in personnel costs. Our aim to invest was to rationalize stagehand labor and to utilize the excess personnel for service delivery and sales works.”
Establishment of the “Kangaroo House”

Sadahiko established the dormitory “Kangaroo House” of fatherless families with a nursery school near Kagaya in 1986 for the purpose ofincreasing the retention rate of the room clerk, Sadahiko explained it as follows (Kunishida,2015g, p. 20):
Noto Nagisa-tei, which was completed in 1981 was full day after day and became busy at astretch. The big issue was that women in charge of the guest room quitted frequently. Because
there were also many single mothers, it was very difficult for them to balance work and childcaring. Because most service delivery and banquet works were during night, they became anxious whether child had a meal or slept. The recruiting was one of the most important task tillthen. Since I began to work for Kagaya in 1962, I periodically went to the job placement offices
in Aomori, Akita, and Iwate of northern Tohoku three prefectures. ...
There is the example that the staff whom I made close from their young person era were
promoted as a director when I continued going all the time. One director said to me that
“There were many people to want to work in the new world after getting a divorce by domestic
circumstances. If you establish the facilities which took care of a child, employees would comemore”. Well, I thought that it was this. I decided to build a dormitory of fatherless families as
the 80th anniversary of the establishment of of Kagaya. There were 53 rroms at 8 stories anda nursery school on the first floor. The place is three minutes on foot from the inn. If there isanything, the room clerk can return to see the face of the child immediately.
I was particular about construction by investing own expenses without receiving local government support daringly. As long as I concerned, I wanted to make the witty dormitory. I
asked Professor Ichiro Mizuno of Kanazawa Institute of Technology to design the building witha feeling of opening with structure. The total cost of construction was approximately 400 million yen. I thought whether I spent too much money, but the way of thinking with “The mostimportant in an inn was preparing excellent room clerks” of my mother, Taka encouraged me.
I thought because it was forward investment to find talented personnel, I should take it. ...
Thanks to the Kangaroo House, we have been equipped with systems that can be secured
somehow human resources as Kagaya. Nagako in charge of the guest room where she came tofrom Sannohe District of Aomori Prefecture continues working while bringing up two children

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and handles an external lecture 1
2 times about “omotenashi” every day now. Her existence
is to symbolize service of Kagaya and becomes the model case of the younger employees. ...
Recently we were able to adopt a room clerk of 20
30 people a year in the new graduates.
Construction of Setsugekka

Sadahiko completed “Setsugekka” by investing 15 billion

yen in 1989. He explained it as follows (Oda, 1997c, p. 5):
In the atrium, the spotlight is to float a flower pattern on each floor. All customers enjoying
its luxurious color through window glass of the elevator. When Showa Emperor stayed, he said
“Oh, it’s beautiful.” Because customers came to the hot spring with a feeling that they were
freed from daily life and wanted to be idle in the non-everyday world, we also have a desire to
produce a space with all the best of luxury. Another ten efficient middle banquet rooms are to
be produced if we do not make colonnade with counting on the abacus, but business efficiency
is not everything. Wasteful atrium in architectural sense and luxurious Kaga Yuzen have become a hot topic, and because newspapers and magazines of the trip were willing to introduce
us, there were the visitors who wanted to come to see it once very much.
Sadahiko also introduced large-scale meal automatic transport system into the Setsugekka.
He explained it as follows (Kunishida, 2015h, p. 20):
We invested to reduce the burden of the employees in charge of the guest room. It is introduction of the automatic transport system which carries a meal to a banquet room and the guest
room. I asked Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries (now IHI) and spread a rail on the ceiling and made a system to hang a wagon to carry the dishes. It is cleaner than manual labor precisely to work by computer control. “Work to carry a dish is hard”. Voices were sent well bya room clerk, and this fact was one of the reasons of high turnover rate. Noto Nagisa-tei also
have had the mechanical transport system made by Daifuku Machine Mechanic (now Daifuku).
The investment was 70 million yen in the type to run on the floor. We spent 400 million yen
in the ceiling conveyance method of Setsugekka. ... “High-tech and High-touch.” It’s a slogan
after introducing the system. High-tech means reliance. High-touch means that because we
reduced the physically load of the housekeepers, they try to increase the contact with the customer to increase customer satisfaction. If the customers increase the order of sake and dishes
by increasing omotenashi, we can also recover investment of the transport system.
Corresponding to the Noto Peninsula Earthquake

The Noto Peninsula earthquake that

occurred in March 25, 2007 was supposed to give a major impact on the management ofKagaya. Sadahiko recalled it as follows (Kunishida, 2015i, p. 20):
There was the wedding ceremony of the acquaintance in Tokyo and I arrived at Haneda

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Airport on the day at about half past 9 a.m. When I was talking with a female secretary on a mobile phone to instruct her duties, she shouted “a great earthquake!” I felt intuitionally for an unusual voice that it happened a serious situation.
I left the greetings of the wedding ceremony to the daughter who went together and decided
to come back. I entered Noto Peninsula from Komatsu Airport, but a road was broken in many
places and that showed intensity of the shaking with a seismic intensity of an upper 6. The all
four buildings we had was left safely when I arrived in the evening. But the water pipe to tie
each ridge was tattered. All the tatami mat and the carpets were ruined. There was one employee who burned with hot water which gushed out, but I felt relieved because other was unharmed. However because the facilities were badly damaged, business was impossible for thetime being. I begged Obayashi Corporation that “I want to reopen for long holidays from theend of April and to get it ready somehow.
If reopen was delayed, we may go bankrupt. The influence on sales by the business cancellation was approximately 1 billion yen in one month. This was big, too, but an image would be
worsened when the customers thought that “It cannot be opened for long holidays because of
the serious damage”. It was important to stand up immediately even if the entertainment business got damage.
Obayashi called out the construction person in charge of 700. Though some of the
carpenters’ houses did not restore, there was the carpenters who dealt with construction.
Because “Kagaya does not revive, the revival of Noto does not have a reason either.” I got
words to get power and promised to make perfect preparations for one month later. Kagaya
also ask to visit the customers of Noto and encouraged each other.
We didn’t do employee dismissal or pay cut, and use the time for the employee training. I
became a chairperson to make the younger brother Takanobu (the existing chairperson) as thepresident in 2000, but I made up my mind to stand in the battle front on the occasion of a crisis,
too. It was the meeting that gathered all the members from an earthquake ten days later that
I was about to tell, “I will make every possible effort for those people who came to Kagaya
linked by fate and you do’t need to worry about the future”. My wife Mayumi as an okami said
“I was too busy for work to have a time to talk with everyone. Holidays become a good opportunity to take the communication. We will work hard to not discouraged.” The unity of the employee was strengthened at the meeting with tears and tears.
I carried out the training to do omotenashi in one step at the time of the reopen. We borrowed the rooms of the inn association, and the room clerk received training for service and the

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tea ceremony. The chef received instruction at famous restaurants and restaurants using latest
cooking device introduced by Rokusaburo Michiba, the cook from Ishikawa Prefectur. I wasconvinced that it was skill up of the employees to lead to an income for the future.
On April 28, we managed to reach resumption. “Can you resere a more expensive room forme?” said the acquaintance who did not travel usually stayed to served as support. The repair
costs were 1 billion yen. The income of the staying for one month was gone. But we got a big
asset that the feeling of the employees became one after a crisis.
Openning of the Hokuriku Shinkansen

Ishikawa Prefecture was end location of the

Hokuriku Shinkansen which opened in March 14, 2015. In Kagaya that was a representative of
the inns in the prefecture employees are working on training to prepare for the opening of the
Shinkansen business,.
The room clerk relearnt English, tea ceremony and floral art again in an interval of the work.
Some chefs went to well-known store “Ginza Kyubei of sushi of Tokyo to polish the skill again.
Sadahiko explains it as follows (Kunishida, 2015a, p. 22): “We got No.1 evaluation in Japan consecutively for 35 years in January. We were evaluated our power of the omotenashi that was
the lifeline of the inn. Kagaya defined the omotenashi as ‘to have a concrete policy that makethe customer’s wish to realize by reading the customer’s wish ahead.’ We tried to hand out agift if we knew today was the birthday of the customer from the conversation of the customer.
The motto of 150 room clerks was ‘attention with a smile’. Each person’s quick wit is important.”

２

Leadership of the third generation okami

Work of Okami in One Day

Mayumi Oda of okami entered in the office in the every

morning 7 : 30 and receive reports of service delivery of the previous day in detail (The following, Hosoi, 2006, pp. 216
218, below, titles omitted). After grasping the event that happened
in a guest room and everywhere in the hall being gathered by that time, and having grasped all
the content, she saw off the hotel guests one by one. Okami’s figure standing at the head ofguest clerks, manager gerenal and assistant manager and seeing the guests was appropriate tojust express “dignified”.
She held the waist to about 90 degrees, smiling, shaking the hand and continuing to do toward the guests in the bus until the bus was no longer visible every morning. Mayumi said
“There is no need for me to stand out. I need to do only when something happened.” Then,
Mayumi began to do meetings with room center that determined the room assignment of theCharacteristics of the Hospitality, Omotenashi in the Traditional Japanese Inn

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employee in charge of the housekeeping, front, cooking department. Time is always 10 : 20
around. On that day, what kind of groups would arrive, whether there would be people of regulars, there would be no problem in allocation of room clerk in charge of each of the room, or
there would be no omission in preparation for visitors in such golden wedding or wedding anniversary and so on. Such meetings had implications for determining the success or failure of
the day.
Mayumi held the last meeting at past 3 : 00 p.m. after a slight daytime break, and the timeof the pick-up became the peak before long. When time was past 18 : 00, Mayumi began tocome around the room to perform a greeting as much as possible. It was said that Mayumi
began to eat late supper when a meal ended in most of the rooms and the banquet was to pass
the peak about half past 20.
While Mayumi repeated such a day and whether clumsiness did not happen for the service
to a hotel guest for keen work, she grasped the state of employees well. Her taking care of employees was exactly similar as Taka who taught Mayumi.
Mayumi said as follow : “Everyone is willing to share my work. When I think so, while I appreciate it, I cannot help but wishing to happiness of the people who work at Kagaya. If you
think cherish our customers, you must also make housekeeper contacting with the customers.
I am always thinking only what to do in order to make workplace fun and make Kagaya touch
the heart together.”Training of Mayumi to Become an Okami

It was said that Taka predecessor okami had

tried to teach Mayumi from the ABCs by commanding her not only to clean entrance and polishshoes but also to do the work of telephone exchange as Taka had been charged so shortly after
she married. Hosoi (2006, p. 92) evaluated Taka as follows. “There are numerous people wholaid the foundation of Kagaya, speaking with a person who has reached the realm of legend in
the 100 year history of Kagaya, I remembered the name of Taka Oda predecessor okami. If
DNA of the omotenashi is alivein Kagaya, it is not an exaggeration to say that the foundation
was brought by Taka.”
Mayumi who has been trained by Taka recalled as follows (Hosoi, 2006, pp. 109, 215
216):“(At that time, unlike now), an okami in inn works 365 days a year without rest. The rest is
said to sin, and no matter tired much at work that were not familiar, she didn’t let give me any
rest. Mother did not permit incompleteness everything such as the cleaning of the guest room
before accepting a visitor. No matter how much exhausted, she let me accomplish it till the lastby all means. Details and severity of the check after the cleaning was also not unusual. I think134

now that was the parental love of being worried about my future.”
Taka who became famous for the room rotation of the okami came to be accompanied by
Mayumi in the greetings. She had already thought “This is synonymous with the okami of
Kagaya”. At that time, Mayumi have seen Taka as soon as she entered the room, she was aperson who immediately accurately pointed out curvature of hanging scroll in the alcove, thefading condition of flower arrangement, slight dirt of the four corners of the room although she
was not to spend time so long in one room of greeting. Furthermore, Taka always ran her eyes
to check the degree of the satisfaction in the guest room, the height of meals on the low dining
table and the eating condition of the meals, and a way of reception in charge of the guest room
instantly. If she felt the prime of cuisine is small, she instantly rush to itavastatin and shout,“let cuisine of that room be more luxurious by adding dishes” was not uncommon. And yet, shewished the happiness of each employee who works in Kagaya and had warm personality andauthentic humanity to sympathize the day-to-day feeling of the employees. Taka was a a courtnoble for Mayumi who was far from comparable to her.
Mayumi said, in that sense, “when I have lost the mother, I was puzzled, ‘what should I do
from now on?’ Do I have an ability to manage Kagaya as an okami? If I thought so, I couldn’t
help being scared. But I remembered my mind became a little bit easy when I determined in
my mind that I am myself, I am never a hard worker, and go naturally without trying to look
big from a certain time” (Hosoi, 2006, pp. 214
215).

IV

Result of the Analysis of the Kagaya’s Case

１

Mechanism of the Infection of Servant Leadership of Okami

It is thought from the case that the leadership of Taka and Mayumi is clearly servant leadership style to think about happiness and growth of the employee to the first than the profit of theorganization. Taka’s mindset to think about an employee to the first infected with not only
Mayumi of the okami but also with sons. Sadahiko really explains Taka as follows (Oda, 1997c,
p. 5):
Mother was unrelated to this industry because of a daughter of the member of prefectural assembly, but she was the person who was devoted to service mind as an okami of the inns. She
stayed in a half sitting to serve sake in front of an each customer by walking around 200 people
large banquet room, and was the person whose joint of the knee had water later and retired.
Because she was a person who would like to greed each customer without exception one byCharacteristics of the Hospitality, Omotenashi in the Traditional Japanese Inn

135

one, she continued lowering the head from the shade of the shop curtain on a wheelchair after
a retirement.
On the other hand, my father was a person who never separated an abacus. Mother and father were the ideal combination after all. As for my personality, I got a lot from the mother.
The recollection of Sadahiko continued (Kunishida, 2015b, p. 24): “Father and mother often
discussed about cost. As for a dish, mother sometimes ignored father to give a luxury cuisine
ignoring profit in comparison with father who calculated cost and profit every one meal. If thegood dish became popular by word of mouth, it was her way of thinking that customers increased and the profit also rose. Even though father scolded mother “What would you like to
do by adding sugar to a candy,” but that did not shaken mother. If I think now, my businessstyle seems closer to one of the mother who does upfront investment in deficit than father who
is strong in abacus calculation.”
While Mayumi of the third generation okami was trained as the servant leader by Taka of thepredecessor, the room clerk became the servant follower, too by mimicking Mayumi as an example (role model). For example, Tamao is a group leader at the Noto-Kyakuden and leads alarge number of young room clerks. “Now Tamao became a position that told the true heartthat she had received to the next generation. Though she had no intention to encourage ayoung person by using lip service phrase and stringing together all sorts of flowery words,
Tamao talked what Mayumi always said to her to the younger generation like the stepdaughterand younger sister, subordinates, and so on. “Mind you, you work to find happiness.” “If you
are not happy, the smile does not appear in front of the customer.”
She has a telephone from President Takanobu Oda every year when it is a birthday.
“Congratulations.” Because Tamao forgetting her birthday answered “What?”, the pleasantvoice came back from the president, “today is a birthday of Ms.Tamao.” “I see, this is myhouse, and we are the family.” Encouraged by the words of casual management team, every
time she be comforted, Tamao thinks this way. “There are a lot of hard things whatever kindof work I do and wherever I live. However I can get over in this inn”. …
Even if being gentle and encouraged no matter how much, there are a lot of people who resign without being able to endure the busy work. The decisive difference between those people
who were said to be a first-class room clerk including Tamao and those people who left has to
do with the difference of the backbone strongly bearing severe work to become professional ofservice delivery to customers. (Hosoi, 2010, pp. 156158)
Hosoi (2010, p. 158) concludes it as follows. “Probably Kagaya which assumes “motenashi”

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as its heart does not exist in the world if Kagaya is the soft inn which is only kind to an employee. The reason why Kagaya has the mindset of the customer orientation like gene that cannot lose anywhere inn is that because there are the top management who not only impose ahurdle even degree of difficulty to the employees, but also sharing the bourdon by themselves
and there is the impenetrable sense of unity between top management and employees otherpeople cannot broke.”
Kenichiro Mogi of the scholar of brain science preaches the secret of the omotenashi of
Kagaya from the viewpoint of brain science as follows (Mogi, 2014, pp. 22
23):
People call a person reading a heart from the delicate gesture and expression of the partner“shut-eye” in the world of a mentalist and the magician. ... The cold reading is a speech skill
to read the partner’s mind by observing partner’s appearance and exchanging a casual conversation without foreknowledge about the partner in a totally few state, and the person called“shut-eye” will perform cold reading without being conscious.
To explain this “shut-eye” from the perspective of brain science, it is to be referred to as“empathy circuit is active by working mirror neurons.” A mirror neuron is the nerve cell whichworks when you replaced it with youself as having projected an action of another person on the
mirror. When the brain meets others, the brain is going to perform simulation (imitation) of
the brain of others. In that way you are going to understand the state of mind of the partner,
and this is “simulation theory” in “theory of mind”. The mirror neuron acts lively then.
Originally the human brain has a mechanism that can put yourself into a position of the otherparty as the circuit. When the person nearby is looking for something while phone, you holdout writing implements by recognizing “Oh, there is no pen”. This is the work of the empathy
circuit by the mirror neurons. ... It is presumed that people like shut-eye working at Kagaya
train on a daily basis.
Mogi’s explanation continue as follows (Mogi, 2014, pp. 12931):
A mirror neuron is the nerve cell which works when you was going to do a thing entirely toreplace with oneself as having projected an action of another person on the mirror. Because
this mirror neuron works, we do same movement as a partner and know the feeling of the partner.
Zen-Buddhist meditation is the representative model. ... As an “ascetic practices” in Japan,
often there is a culture, such as to practice the activation of these mirror neurons. ... I think behaviorism of “ascetic practices” is the Japanese tradition. ... In other words, there is a lawlearned by experience that imitating the formalized action can approach better in essence. ...

Characteristics of the Hospitality, Omotenashi in the Traditional Japanese Inn137

Any person cannot but admire universality to arrive at it to some level when practicing themethodology.
As Mogi indicated, there are many ascetic practices in Japan to start practicing the imitationof the model of the teacher such as representative of tea ceremony, but the mind side represented in “the heart of the omotenshi” of the teacher is infected with a pupil by this type of imitation. On the contrary, the motive of pupil to deep understanding about the model becomesstronger and stronger when a heart of the omotenashi has been cultivated. There is a good circulation between a model and the heart of the omotenashi in this way (Sato et al., 2014 ; Satoand Parry, 2015).

２

Okami and Shared Leadership with Other Executives

There is an image that an okami manages all work of the inn management to the public. But
this is not the case. In the following, we will confirm this point in Kagaya case.
The division of labor relationship between the president and the okami had become as follows. In other words, Sadahiko of president is planning over and realizing both soft and hard
aspects based on the vision of omotenashi and business model that can establish omotenashi facilities and introduce the personnel system. And in it okami leads by example at the omotenash
front. For example, the establishment of the dish automatic transport system and “KangarooHouse” which Sadahiko decided to introduce to solve lack of employee or a measure to receive
training to give a level of the omotenashi while protecting the employment of the employee
during the closing after the earthquake disaster are the cooperation examples.
Then how is the relations between Sadahiko and the younger brother Takanobu? Hosoi(2006, pp. 223225) explains it as follows in this connection :Sadahiko Oda chairman who is certified as a “Tourism Charisma” by the government has
spent extremely busy days because he suffers from a variety of key positions in not only local
of Ishikawa Prefecture, but also at the center. Executives engaged in management including
Mayumi okami of his wife to protect his absence and it is President Takanobu Oda who hold theposition as Kagaya’s No. 2 giving managerial decisions in the various situations.
President Oda is the 3-year-old difference to the chairman. He continues to play a management role when the elder brother was a president as a managing director, and when his brother
held the chairman as a president. It is clear to everyone that the management foundation of
today’s Kagaya has been handed down by founding family direct line of Oda brother with unwavering confidence each other and the partnership. ... President Oda after working one and138

half year to a major travel agency after graduating from university, he entered the Kagaya togo after his brother and dedicated to work harder.
From these days, the role of brothers became clear. While the elder brother who was active
mainly on Junior Chamber outside widely opens acquaintances in the whole country and brings
various information, the younger brother ascertain the information one by one, and if the information is useful to Kagaya, he embodied it steadily. ... In the case of constructing the Noto
Nagisa-tei, it was through Oda chairman’s personal connections of the outside that the brothers
met an architect who stimulated the project. At that time President Oda was the managing director of 36-year-old and he repeatedly examined detail over and over again with the architectand struggled to start the construction while considering the huge amount of investment. It
was said his contribution was great.
In addition, Takanobu of the younger brother works on reinforcement of the unity as“Kagaya family” in the company positively. For example, “President Oda continued giving children who invited the New Year in the Kangaroo House a New Year’s present every year writing “President” by a hiragana letter to a small tips envelope because as a President I should
become a step father temporally ... (Hosoi, 2006, p. 230). As already introduced, Takanobu isconvey the congratulations messages by phone to birthday of employees.

３

Evolution and Sharing of Management Philosophy, Mission, and Vision

The structure of the omotenashi must be evolved from the both sides of hard and soft aspectwith the times. In the case of Kagaya, it is said that the thought called “the order of the employee in charge of the guest room is the voice of the customer” penetrates. And the president
lets it realize structure as the hardware and system as the software, and an okami is acting as
the leader in the field based on these. There is “Kagaya family” as a warm unity from the heart
under the axis of the okami in the scene.
The evolution of the management philosophy to secure the employment of the employee exists. In fact, the decision of Kagaya administration in the case of the Noto Peninsula earthquakeof 2009 included a precedent. Hosoi (2010, pp. 235236) introduced it as follows :It was 1963. Hokuriku area in winter was deep by heavy snowfall called “38 heavy snowfall”
later. There was no customer for the inn during one month. There were some inns that must
discharge employees, but the predecessors in the family line couple rode out the winter without cutting employees at all. I used to go out for a shopping expedition to Kanazawa to feed employees by taking 18 hours during a painful month.

Characteristics of the Hospitality, Omotenashi in the Traditional Japanese Inn

139(Being trained by Yonomasa and Taka Odas and the same age cousin of Sadahiko, and active
as their right arm, Ryuichi Mura’s) these words made remember the Chairman Oda’s words at
the time of the Noto Peninsula earthquake. Decision of Sadahiko at this time is considered tobe the transformational leadership in which the authentic leadership is expressed at the timeof crisis response (Sato, 2009, p. 14).
As discussed previously, Sadahiko introduced in rapid succession innovation in the businessmodel of Kagaya. However, it was the positive inheritance Yonomasa, the father of Sadahiko.
Hosoi (2010, pp. 233235) beautifully described about Ryuichi Mura’s carrier at Kagaya fromthe point of view of the positive business process innovation by Yonomasa :It was rest room cleaning that they ordered me to do, and same age Chairperson Oda was always next to me. We wiped it when it became dirty day after day with being said, “the rest
room cleaning was basics of the inn business” by Yonomasa.
Mura was said “now take the license of the car” and he acquired a driver’s license. Mura had
been commanded to go shopping by car about 4 : 00 a.m. to the Oumicho market in Kanazawashi distantly far away.
... Omicho market at the time, is the kitchen of the citizens, and it was also the wholesalemarket for broker who is arranging the eaves. Kagaya until then, had purchased the food fromhawkers to peddle fish and vegetables in the Wakura hot spring. Mura was now driving theonly company-owned vehicle to stock much cheaper fresh fish and vegetables than hawkers.
However, Predecessors Mr. and Mrs. Odas assigned the stocking saving cost to their profit
and used it to reduce the hotel charges. It was similar to today’s Kagaya’s cost saving way ofthought such as the dish automated transferring system.
Furthermore Yonomasa stuck to buy how much one whole fish rather than buy sea bass andsea bream in kilogram. Buying fish that head and intestines not be used for cooking in weight
was the height of folly, such as sea bream, which cut - to use in everything from head to gut cuisine. By purchase in the calculation of the cost per fish, he made Mura possible to do strictcosting. ... While Mura was exposed to fine barrage of questions, he was familiar with a cost accounting and really took the cook license and dealt with a fish by himself and have checked thequantity of sliced raw fish made from one with the price of the fish.
It was to hire the boys just graduated from junior high school to bring up to a qualified cookerthat Yonomasa provided next difficult problem to Ryuichi Mura who came to know a lot aboutcooking naturally. It was a custom to be seen in the present times, and there was a boss to thedresser of the inn of that time by all means, and if the boss about to be pulled out to other inn,

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the boss’s pupils often disappeared together. The manager of the inn was apt to decline for theboss simply because he would like to stop the “total disappearance of cookers.”
It was not unusual to not know which a top manager was at all, and the cost of food jumped
up when the boss was going to procure food freely. If such a thing happened, the expected
service is not always good. Yonomasa thought, “Only our inn has a rule that the customer musthave top priority. I do not want to admit a boss behave at will”. Thereafter, Mura stood in the
kitchen and taught young persons with reliable skilled chefs and trained cooks of the Kagaya
breeding in great numbers.

V

Conclusions and future direction of this research
From the case study research of Kagaya, we were able to clarify three interesting points

about characteristics of the omotenashi in the Japanese inn, particularly the leadership of theokami. In this section, we will explain the theoretical and practical contributions of its conclusion, and the limitations and future direction of the research.
The first point that became clear in this research is a point that the leadership style of theokami of Kagaya is servant leadership, the concrete expression form of one of the authentic
leadership. Moreover it means that this leadership is infected with a follower because of theauthentic leadership.
It was necessary to learn the detailed 5S-like training of the field in inn including the
restroom cleaning repeatedly thoroughly so that an okami and the leader in charge of the guest
room became servant leader. And, in the case of the executive of the men, this was also a fact.
In addition, the enthusiasm that endured such a severe training was necessary to become a servant leader.
The second point that became clear in this researcht was a fact that, in fact, the leadershipof the okami was supported by the shared leadership among the executive. It is thought thatwhat Mayumi of the okami say, “there is no need to outstand me. But I should go everywhere
if something wrong happened” is because the okami is conscious of it rightly.
The third point that became clear in this report is that the constant evolution of the systemof both hardware and software sides that provides omotenashi is necessary based on management philosophy, mission and visions.
As for the structure providing the omotenashi in the Japanese inn, there is few studies thatelucidated the structure theoretically until now. Three points that this research brought big

Characteristics of the Hospitality, Omotenashi in the Traditional Japanese Inn

141

theoretical contributions for elucidation of the structure providing the omotenashi in theJapanese inn in this sense.
Okubo (2007, p. 28) explained the Japanese omotenashi as follows : “the Japaneseomotenashi is consisted of the three principles, ① preparing and waiting for guest (principle
of preparations), ② directing relaxed space (principle of arrangements), and ③ sharing rulesof the game (principle of contrivance).” In the future, we need to clarify what evolution of thethree principles occurs and the reasons of the evolution, for example, by using a theoreticalframework such Servicescape to do the case study research.
The authors believe that they will become as follows if they show it schematically. In otherwords, “(vague) omotenashi philosophy, mission and vision ＋ endemism of location ⇒ deliberate strategy ＋ emergent strategy ⇒ realized omotenashi strategy ⇒ revised hospitality philosophy, mission and vision ＋ proactive attempt to change environment of local location ⇒deliberate strategy ＋ emergent strategy ＝ realized omotenashi strategy ⇒ … .” The authors,for example, believe that they will be able to clarify the interesting points to track the evolution
process of omotenashi by Kamenoi-besso in Yufuin of Oita Prefecture.
Also, as for the “principle of contrivance” of omotenashi, it is necessary to use the servicedominant logic the authors have analyzed in the case of the Japanese luxury kaiseki restaurant
omotenashi (Sato et al., 2014 ; Sato and Parry, 2015).
Omotenashi of the Japanese inn is one of the long-term coherence type led by the room
clerk. In addition, the positioning strategy and the value proposition of the inn are also wideranging. It is important to study omotenashi in the viewpoint of the value co-created with thecustomer in this sense.
The practical contributions of this study is related to the shared leadership of the executiveof the inn. It is the important research theme that has been hardly studied until now how executives share the leadership between CEO, COO, CFO or CMO. Another practical research
theme in conjunction with it is importance of 5S practice such as the restroom cleaning that
Kagaya and the okami cram school emphasize as a training method of the okami. We need toclarify systematically what kind of influence 5S practices brings for okami education.
This study is a single case study research analyzing only Kagaya. It will be necessary to elucidate the omotenashi of the Japanese inn in terms of comprehensive and integrated manner byusing many cases in future.

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