It's a pretty place, too, with classy red banquettes and delicate hanging lanterns.
Open on one side to the Marketplace, and hung with red lanterns and delicate bird cages, the Imperial Tea Court has the feel of an exotic, intimate, sanctuary; it seats about 25.
For a candle-powered alternative, Zodax (www.zodax.com), based in Los Angeles, showed a new, delicate set of hurricane lanterns called Carina Capiz ($15 to $45), wrought of translucent capiz shells with antique copper wire in a basket-weave pattern.
Alongside his indelible prints of the Great Wave or Mount Fuji, this huge deal of a show, spanning seven decades of Hokusai's career and accompanied by two different publications, will present lesser-known pieces such as screen paintings, dioramas and delicate illustrations done on paper lanterns.
Aman spent ten months renovating the buildings to create the library, cigar hall, restaurants, spa, and 42 soothing, neutral-palette rooms and suites within them, using elements mostly from the area pale open-grain elm furniture, latticework screens and delicate wire, and rice paper lanterns.
"At night it will transform into an almost Chinese lantern, something quite delicate and illuminating".
The New York-based Iranian artist Afruz Amighi contributes delicate hanging sculptures made of thin silver chains; they read as lanterns but are based on missiles and rockets.
Under silk lanterns, diners can make their way from Chinese soups and delicate dumplings to emphatically French desserts (apricot tart with almond ice cream, for one).
Carved sycamore chairs, upholstered in gold leather and laced with delicate flower patterns, were brought from Japan, along with deep gold screens, deeply carved marble-topped tables and lanterns of sycamore slats and rice paper.
