"From 1913 to 1922, Wright visited and stayed in Japan intermittently for the renewal of the Imperial Hotel as well as for his collection of Japanese art, including ukiyo-e prints," says Imperial Hotel Tokyo Public Relations Manager Iori Hamada.
While Wright may be the most famous steward of the Imperial Hotel, he was just one of many over the years. For the building’s 1890 opening, Yuzuru Watanabe designed the hotel as a comfortable Victorian-style guesthouse for foreign visitors, followed by Wright in 1922 and the third-generation expansion by Teitaro Takahashi in the 1970s.
In 1909, a New York-based Japanese antique dealer, Aisaku Hayashi, became the first general manager of the hotel. From introducing new guest services to the renovation of the deteriorating wooden structure, Hayashi played a pivotal role in the Imperial Hotel’s history. When it came time to begin work on the renovation, Hayashi was also instrumental in bringing in Wright, who he knew from the architect's collection of Japanese woodblock prints.
“In 1916, Hayashi traveled to the United States and entered into a memorandum of agreement that awarded the Imperial Hotel commission to Wright,” says Hamada.
"Wright considered the Imperial Hotel one of his most significant commissions,” explains architectural historian and Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation curator Dr. Jennifer Grey. “It was a major public building and his first international project, inaugurating his global practice, and it was an engineering achievement, surviving the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, proving he could handle jobs of such complexity.
“The Imperial Hotel commission was, in many ways, the capstone of Wright's ongoing interest in Japanese culture."
The surviving photographs of Wright's Japan tours show that he seemed to have taken a particular interest in temples, shrines and gardens.
"Waterfalls and water gardens were of special interest to Wright during his time in Japan, later inspiring numerous projects designed around aquatic features, most notably Fallingwater in Mill Run, Pennsylvania."
According to Grey, the Imperial Hotel project ignited in Wright a Japanese influence better expressed in his buildings in the U.S. than those he completed in Japan, such as the Jiyu Gakuen School for Girls or the Fukuhara House.
Wright’s Imperial Hotel renovation, however, clearly communicated its European influences.
"When Wright designed the second Imperial Hotel, he endeavored to express the unusual mixture of East and West that increasingly characterized Tokyo in the early 20th century,” Grey says. “The hotel predominantly served international guests, but its historic site across from the Imperial Palace also required sensitivity to Japanese traditions. Wright used Oya stone, a volcanic rock unique to the region (around Utsunomiya, Tochigi Prefecture), in the ornamentation throughout the hotel, making a direct connection to Japanese culture, but he also used masonry construction rather than traditional wood craftsmanship.
From the hotel’s front desk, Hamada points out that Wright's second-generation hotel was a microcosm of a small town containing a restaurant, bar, banquet hall, terrace, theater, post office and an arcade. Guest rooms and public spaces were comparable in size to encourage socializing.
“The exuberant ornamentation has been understood in different ways in its relationship to Japanese culture," says Grey. "The plan of the hotel is symmetrical and axial, almost classical, but its forms are modern and abstract. The interior courtyards are designed as Japanese gardens, but the hotel also boasted modern dining and entertainment spaces.”
"The Wright building fulfilled its function as a beacon of cultural exchange,” Hamada says. “It was more than just a lodging facility.”
But with such a drastic change of aesthetics, how did its loyal guests react to Wright's design? Grey says that the initial reaction seems to have been complicated due to the slow construction process caused by both technical and political issues related to the budget and design.
"However, when the (hotel) survived the Great Kanto Earthquake relatively unscathed, popular opinion was generally favorable, and Wright's Imperial Hotel was, like its predecessor, popular with locals and foreigners alike.”
Due to wartime damages and a postwar increase in lodgers that necessitated a greater number of guest rooms, Wright’s design saw its end in February 1968. Today, the Wright-designed Imperial Hotel's central entrance is located at the Meiji Mura Open Air Museum in Aichi Prefecture. Aside from the relocated facade, the third-generation Imperial Hotel's Old Imperial Bar still features Wright's mural and Oya stone relief above the fireplace, and the bar counter wall showcases terra cotta that was used during the initial construction.
There also remains the Frank Lloyd Wright Suite, the only hotel room in the world to bear the architect's name (thanks to an agreement with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation). The suite incorporates both Wright's Imperial Hotel designs, using the original carpets, furniture and lighting, along with features inspired by the architect's private residence in Oak Park, Illinois.
In March 2021, the hotel announced plans to embark on the fourth renovation of the Imperial Hotel. Moving on from a Wright design made international headlines and raised a few eyebrows, but the architect chosen for the project — Paris-based Tsuyoshi Tane of Atelier Tsuyoshi Tane Architects — states that the goal is not to modernize but to regain the legacy of its origin.
"One of the main reasons the third generation was built in 1970 was to create a grand hotel with over 900 rooms," says Tane, “but to dig into the site archaeologically, it has a history of over 130 years."
The fourth-generation architect highlights that they are all as important as the memories of the Imperial Hotel, as the previous designs of each generation are crucial for the planned overall 2036 completion. Tane, himself, is renowned for his work on the Estonian National Museum to the Maison Sota Atsumi restaurant in Paris.
The architect emphasizes his design development by delving into memories and researching the evolution of our relationship tied to any given project, whether a museum, a restaurant or one of Tokyo’s most iconic hotels.
"I believe that architectural aesthetics should belong to the style of the place, and I am not interested in imposing an architect's style,” Tane says. “Wright was influenced by the ancient Mayan civilization. We've studied ancient temples and palaces, ornaments from diverse civilizations and cultures for this project.
“Wright's Imperial Hotel was also hailed as the 'Jewel of the Orient.’ It was neither Oriental nor Occidental, but a perfect blend of the two. It is important that the fourth-generation Imperial Hotel continues this identity and legacy of Wright's Imperial Hotel, as well as the first and third."
Tane chronicles that in human history, a palace points to an inviting space and a stepped tower that represents the progress of mankind as we’ve attempted to climb as close as possible to the sky, a hint of what to be expected once the fourth-generation hotel opens its doors.
"The idea is to create an urban grand hotel where the lobby will be celebrated with theatrical splendor and grandeur,”says the calmly composed architect with a glimmering excitement in his tone. “The past memories will build the future of this iconic hotel."
