The Ritz-Carlton, Kyoto

What the classifiers highlight

Along the Kamogawa River, the hotel that opened in 2014 took its exterior cues from five Japanese words, utage, seido, miyabi, hana and nagomi, festive, serene, elegant, splendid, harmonious. Inside, a three-story waterfall feeds a spa pool past gardens themed on the eleventh-century Tale of Genji. Forbes rates it Five Stars for 134 rooms and a green-tea massage ritual, Ryokucha.