Image courtesy of Sanva Refreshment Complex
A new multi-purpose destination that aims to awaken the senses has opened just steps from Yoyogi-Hachiman Station in Tokyo’s Shibuya ward. Called Sanva Refreshment Complex, the space offers a different way of engaging with everyday experiences.
Behind the project is owner Fumiya Yoshiyama, formerly of PADDLERS COFFEE. What does it mean to create an experience that sharpens the senses rather than simply encouraging consumption? We take a closer look at the meaning behind the concept of “refreshment” that Yoshiyama has envisioned.
A Third Place for the Local Community
Image courtesy of Sanva Refreshment Complex
Sanva Refreshment Complex is a two-floor multi-purpose space that brings together the direct retail store of fragrance brand Sanva, alongside a café and gallery. Open from 7am to 10pm, the space launched in April 2026 with owner Fumiya Yoshiyama’s vision of creating a place rooted in everyday life, where people can drop by daily.
The space also embraces the idea of a “third place,” a concept popularised by companies such as Starbucks to describe a place that is neither home nor workplace. Much like Yoshiyama’s previous workplace, PADDLERS COFFEE, it is designed to be more than just a café, remaining open as a place where the local community can gather.
Yoshiyama also explains that his past experiences became a major influence in shaping what Sanva Refreshment Complex is today.
“There’s a hotel called Ace Hotel in Portland, Oregon, where the lobby functions as a community hub for the city. On the ground floor is a coffee shop called Stumptown Coffee, which draws not only hotel guests but many local visitors too. In that spirit, Sanva Refreshment Complex also sees the coffee shop as an entry point, aiming to become the kind of place where you know someone will always be there.”
The food and drink menu is thoughtfully crafted to complement the fragrances.
While serving as a third place, Sanva Refreshment Complex reimagines the concept as a space that engages the senses in a more interconnected way. At the centre of this idea is what Yoshiyama simply calls “refreshment.”
“Having a café, fragrance shop, and gallery gathered in one place allows taste, scent, and sight to work together naturally. My hope is that by spending time and moving through the space, people can feel renewed in some way. That’s the role I imagine for this place.”
The café space also includes an area designed for standing and gathering.
Food and drinks are also offered from a range of places shaped by different communities and local scenes. This includes Kumamoto’s ice cream shop BLANCO ICE CREAM, Kanazawa’s coffee shop TOWNSFOLK COFFEE, and Calmest Coffee Shop from Yoshiyama’s hometown of Kumamoto.
Crafting a Space Designed to Engage the Senses
Curtains dyed with cherry blossoms were installed to reflect the season of the space’s April opening.
Interior and art direction were led by Yusuke Nagai of Vacant. Here too, the focus remained on engaging the senses, with the entire space created from the ground up.
“I think incorporating existing design elements can make a space feel more immediately familiar. But at the same time, it can end up feeling too recognisable, where the style begins to define the space before people experience it. Because stimulating the senses is so important to us, we were particular about creating everything here from scratch.”
The second floor, home to the Sanva fragrance shop, shifts in atmosphere from the first floor and carries a sense of warmth that feels almost human. Defining the mood of the space are the milky-white display fixtures, made from FRP (fibre-reinforced plastic), a material that is now only handled at this scale in a limited number of places in Japan.
“These fixtures were developed in collaboration with Kohei Maehara of BP., who led the design, and an 80-year-old craftsman. One of the qualities of FRP is the way it softens light as it gently spills through the openings in the fixtures. Generally, brighter retail spaces are considered better for sales. But this place was never intended to simply sell things. We wanted visitors to take away an experience that goes beyond consumption, which is why we intentionally shaped the space this way.”
Transforming Memory into Fragrance
The direct store of fragrance brand Sanva on the second floor is built around the themes of memory and abstraction. According to Yoshiyama, visual information tends to remain tied to what is seen, whereas scent has the ability to call forth entire scenes, including the atmosphere of a moment and the memories attached to it.
The two fragrances lined up at Sanva each originate from Yoshiyama’s own personal narratives. North Marine Drive was inspired by memories of time spent with his father during childhood.
The fragrance is offered in two versions: body mist and fragrance mist.
“This fragrance is rooted in memories of drives in a classic car my father cherished. I remember the distinctive scent of the seats, the feeling of manually rolling down the windows, and a time when I struggled to understand the distance between us. It’s funny because the smell was probably one I didn’t particularly like at the time, yet now it stays with me as a vivid and treasured memory.”
Fragrance Profile
Another fragrance, Sleeping Gypsy, is named after Michael Franks’ 1977 jazz vocal album. It was created over a period of more than six months with a perfumer and inspired by a song from the album that unexpectedly resurfaced through the radio during the pandemic in 2020.
Beyond the fragrances themselves, Sanva also offers sessions that transform memories into scent. Through conversations with a perfumer, participants create a fragrance unique to them. The resulting scents are then archived in the second-floor Fragrance Library.
Rooted in the Yoyogi-Hachiman Community
A gallery space is incorporated along the windows on the second floor and currently hosts rotating artist exhibitions.
Sanva Refreshment Complex has opened in Yoyogi-Hachiman, a neighbourhood Yoshiyama describes as his favourite area in Tokyo. The site itself was once home to a local stationery shop where generations of elementary school students came to buy indoor shoes and textbooks. When the building was redeveloped, longtime members of the local shopping district, including neighbourhood real estate and construction companies, helped make the project possible.
“Yoyogi-Hachiman is actually one of Tokyo’s more sought-after areas, and under normal circumstances, it wouldn’t be the kind of place an independent business could easily rent. But local people told us they wanted to support something that could continue for the long term, and thanks to everyone’s help, we were able to make it happen.”
From morning through to night, Sanva Refreshment Complex keeps its lights on, offering a quiet sense of familiarity to the neighbourhood. As Yoshiyama explains, he intentionally avoids imposing a specific message, instead hoping visitors can experience and interpret the space in their own way. Whether for coffee, fragrance, or simply a moment to pause, it feels like a place worth discovering at your own pace while exploring the neighbourhood.
Sanva Refreshment Complex
Address: 1-6-8 Tomigaya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
Website: www.sanva.jp
