So three years ago, when Fukugaki met Yuto Maeda and Yu Tazawa, who were operating Airbnbs across Tokyo, he proposed an idea: Rather than create endless, run-of-the-mill, IKEA-outfitted apartments for rent why not create a truly one-of-a-kind experience by collaborating with local artists? The radical part? Artists would get a cut of the proceeds. They tried it out, creating a prototype Airbnb in Ikebukuro designed by artists JonJon Green and Hideyuki Katsumata. Every time the room was booked, a percentage of the profits went directly to the artist. It was an instant hit.

"Most of our guests wanted to meet us and the artists," says Fukugaki. "They wanted to see the real local scene." So the trio took the next step: they built a hotel.

In getting to know the Tokyo art scene, they found themselves returning again and again to one neighborhood: Koenji, home to countless thrift shops, record bars, and music venues, and the birthplace of the Tokyo punk scene in the 1980s. It's here they met Kenji Daikoku, now their cofounder and art director, who was running a gallery and event space called Amp Cafe and was totally ingrained in the community. Almost immediately, Fukugaki admits, "We knew it had to be Koenji."

Tomooki Kengaku's playful Athletic Park room at BnA Akihabara. Photo: Tomooki Kengaku

Just a few years later, the petite hotel and bar, just steps from the Koenji subway stop, is central artist's hangout, which often fills to the brim around 1 A.M. when the last train from central Tokyo drops the neighborhood's residents back home for the night.

"There's not a lot we can do about the noise some nights," says Sabrina Suljevic, the PR and marketing manager, as she shows me to a set of earplugs by the bed. "It's kind of a party place."

But across town, in the tech junkie paradise of Akihabara, a slightly less social model has just opened. Called BnA Studio, the five units here offer apartment-style roominess (by Tokyo standards, they're sprawling) and amenities such as washing machines and small kitchens that make it fitting for those posted up for longterm stays. Given carte blanche, the artists ran wild in their respective spaces. With an eye-popping color scheme and playful decor (a child's bike becomes a side table; oversized toys and objects lurk under the plywood bed), Ryohei Murakami's rooms, called Athletic Park, have a wacky, Memphis-inspired sensibility, while street artist collective 81 Bastards placed a bed smack in the middle of a room covered—walls to ceiling—with an immersive, kaleidoscopic mural. Still, with BnA's offices located conveniently downstairs, guests get a similar sort of "in" with some members of the local community.

A 360-degree mural by 81 Bastards encases a room at BnA Studio in Akihabara. Photo: Tomooki Kengaku

The in-your-face-ness of it all is by design. It's impossible not to Instagram this stuff or, at the very least, run home and tell your art-loving friends. Explains Fukugaki: "Much like an art patron, our hotel provides financial support and global exposure to the local artists that we work with."

The concept is catching on. A new location is coming to Kyoto and a third is opening in Tokyo. But while they admit the upcoming Tokyo Olympics will likely lead to a surge in interest, they're not focused on that temporary influx. Their goal is to create something more sustainable that actually changes things for their crop of creatives, all of which are full-time artists living nearby.

"I found that BnA changes the way artists perceive themselves," says Fukugaki. "Most local artists have never had an international audience, and when they realize their work is appreciated by people from another country, they grow as an artist."

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