Queen's Butler

Queen's Butler is a new business begun by the All Japan Butler Association. On the stage of a single antique residence in Odaiba, women guests experience the butler's hospitality. A salon, a studio that doubles as a space to hire, an apprenticeship of an afternoon, a shop that trades online: four ways in, but one residence and one set of butlers.

The phrase "the butler who serves a queen" means that whoever comes to the residence is received as its mistress. Butlers of both sexes serve here, and for as long as you remain one of them is under the same roof: he takes your instructions, moves ahead of you where that is useful, and goes back to the anteroom when quiet is what you want. The butler's timing is the residence's time itself.

—What the name teaches the butlers

The house is opened by appointment alone, to parties of between one and six. Meals are not cooked here, though you are welcome to carry in whatever you would like to eat and drink. What is charged, and the terms on which a car is provided, are revised from time to time; the official site holds what applies today.

The word Queen in the name is not there to call our women guests queens. It is there so that the butlers never forget the order inside the door: the one who has come stands highest. The butler serves a mistress, and the residence's name tells the butler every day who that is.

—Why the salon is for women

In setting up the residence, the first thing I decided was what it would not be. It is not a venue, not a place for gathering a crowd and making it lively. One party is received, and only that party's hours run there. The number we accept is small for the size of the house precisely in order to hold that one point.

Let me also set down why the salon is for women. The association heard for years from people who wanted to experience a butler's hospitality but found it hard to come alone. Knowing in advance that there will be no stranger inside the door is itself what lowers that threshold. This is less a courtesy than a point of design.

Whichever of the four doors you enter by, a butler is in the residence. We do not lend it by handing over a key. Comings and goings are received by the butler at the door, and the lady is never left alone in the house.

That said, the butler is not talking at your side the whole time. While you read, or while a shoot is under way, the butler retires to the anteroom, a few steps from being called back. The bell on the table is the signal between mistress and butler.

—The work done in the anteroom

This promise is made not to protect the residence but to protect the lady. In a residence with a butler, even a first-time guest is never lost and never has to mind anyone. That is why the association does not lend the residence unattended.

I am often asked what the butler does while withdrawn to the anteroom: preparing the next tea, listening to the table, checking where the bell stands. Out of sight, but the attention never breaks. The residence's time is held up by the attention of a butler you cannot see.

—How much conversation

At reservation we are sometimes asked how much the butler will speak. The answer is: as much as the lady decides. For those who wish to talk, a companion in conversation; for those who wish for quiet, a presence only. One word on arrival, and the butler sets the day's timing.

There is a quieter reason a butler is always present. Someone visiting for the first time does not know what they are allowed to do. With no one there, the hours pass with that uncertainty still held. With a butler there, one sentence dissolves it. The butler is in the residence for the sake of that one sentence.

The residence has four rooms: the dining room with its chandelier and long table; the study with its typewriter and globe; the fireplace lounge for reading and films; and the bedroom for rest. Each is arranged so that furnishings of different ages and origins can be read as one residence.

The butler's role changes with the room: serving in the dining room, assisting with letters and records in the study, films and tea in the lounge, morning tea and the turning-down of the bed in the bedroom. Whichever room the lady chooses, the butler switches to that room's etiquette.

—Laid out as a route for going ahead

When the lady moves from one room to another, the butler always goes ahead and opens the door; the light and warmth of the next room are set before she rises. The four rooms are designed as a route along which the butler anticipates.

Which of the four rooms you will use is asked at reservation, but you may change your mind on the day. Meaning to write letters in the study and falling asleep by the fireplace instead is a common thing at the residence. The butler is attached to the lady, not to the room.

The lighting is lowered as the hours pass: bright on arrival, a little dimmer for tea, and by the hour of the film the fire in the hearth has become the principal light. Without the guest noticing, the day in the residence is arranged to move towards dusk. The management of light is also part of a butler's craft.

Of the four rooms, the one where guests stay longest is the room with the hearth. Most ask for the dining room when they book, and yet as the day goes on they all move to the fire. Where a person settles is not always the place they pictured. Part of why a butler attends the guest rather than the room is to follow that move.

The butlers who stand in the residence are the same people who stand in THE BUTLER's field: certified by the association, in the same attire, serving by the same etiquette. If THE BUTLER is the business that brings a butler to your home, Queen's Butler is the business that invites you to where the butlers are.

If, having been served at the residence, you think you would like this at home, THE BUTLER's desk is the place; if, having touched the attire, you think you would like to become one, the Japan Butler Academy. The residence is also the entrance to all the association's businesses.

—The house is also a practice room

The residence matters to the butlers too. THE BUTLER's field is the client's house, where a butler has no place of their own. The residence is also the association's rehearsal room, where butlers refine their conduct at the mistress's side. In the hours when no guest is received, the butlers watch one another's conduct there.

The residence has also changed how butlers grow. In a client's home there is little room to recover from a mistake. Here the same scene can be set up again and again. During the hours when no guest is being received, the residence becomes the strictest classroom the association has.

When butlers change over at the residence, the one going off duty always tells the one coming on how the guest has been that day. It would seem enough to write it down, but most of it cannot be written: the tone of voice, whether conversation is wanted, which chair was chosen. Because that handover happens, a guest never has to explain themselves twice when the butler changes.