![\"Bellboy](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/bellboy-1.jpg\")
Bell boy in the lobby of the main wing<\/p>\nRumours had been swirling for months and then it came in May, the news all lovers of modern Japanese architecture had feared: the redevelopment of Hotel Okura in Tokyo. The word \u201ciconic\u201d is tediously overused but this hotel, a landmark since 1962, fully deserves the label. In September 2015 the best bit of the most loved hotel in Tokyo will be torn down by its owners to make way for a 38-storey glass tower. It will be a heartbreaking and irreparable loss.<\/p>\n
Located in Toranomon on what had been a feudal estate, the Okura is an extraordinary testament to a key moment in Japanese design. It was built two years ahead of the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 \u2013 with an annexe added in 1973 \u2013 by an exceptionally gifted and diverse group that included the architects Yoshiro Taniguchi and Hideo Kosaka, the folk artist Shiko Munakata and the potter Kenkichi Tomimoto. Together they created a unique modern design that referenced the traditional colours, shapes and crafts of Japan.<\/p>\n
Visitors can walk into the main building of the Hotel Okura today and still drink in the atmosphere of 1960s Tokyo. The lobby is much as it was: a perfect combination of wood, paper screens and pendant lights. Tomimoto\u2019s vast mural dominates one wall. The signage is simple and concise. The lobby attendants wear their kimonos with unselfconscious ease. Even the displays of seasonal foliage, arranged by an Ikebana school, are agreeably understated.<\/p>\n
If you were designing a hotel today you might not think to include a tea ceremony room or a \u201cGo\u201d salon for players of Japan\u2019s version of chess but the Okura has both. It also has staff in tuxedos and bow ties, a Japanese garden and a bar where they\u2019ve been making highballs since they were fashionable the first time around.<\/p>\n
Bell boy in the lobby of the main wing<\/p>\n
![\"Cloakroom](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/cloak-2_re.jpg\")
Cloakroom attendant in the now-closed main wing<\/p>\n
![\"Hotel](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/exterior_night-3.jpg\")
The main wing at night; the building was designed by Yoshiro Taniguchi and Hideo Kosaka and opened in 1962<\/p>\n
![\"Hotel](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/light_ceiling_banquetfloor-8.jpg\")
The banqueting rooms in the main wing, popular for weddings and conferences<\/p>\n
![\"Hotel](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/mainlobby-_backlight-6.jpg\")
\u2018Shoji\u2019 paper and \u2018tategu\u2019 handmade wooden screens in the lobby of the main wing, with famous pendant lights<\/p>\n
![\"Hotel](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/mainlobby_floor-1.jpg\")
Lobby of the main wing with original mural from 1962 by ceramic artist Kenkichi Tomimoto<\/p>\n
![\"Hotel](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/mainlobby_sofa_silhouette-1.jpg\")
Bamboo silhouetted behind paper screens in the lobby<\/p>\n
![\"Hotel](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/mainlobby_worldclock-3-3.jpg\")
Seiko world clock in the lobby of the main wing<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/orchid_bar-6.jpg\")
The Orchid Bar in the main wing, a favourite retreat offering beautifully made cocktails and a good steak sandwich<\/p>\n
![\"Decorative](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/tilewall_a-4.jpg\")
Tiles on the staircase; every decorative detail in the main wing was carefully chosen and many featured traditional Japanese motifs<\/p>\n
It is hard to imagine a more elegant dining room than the Orchid Room where they cook up sole bonne femme and wiener schnitzel like it was 1964. There, as in the rest of the hotel, staff go about their business with an assured confidence that only comes with years of experience. They are more than capable of dealing with the countless vips who\u2019ve stayed here. President Obama was resident in April, conveniently close to the US Embassy.<\/p>\n
There is no doubt that poorly judged periods of renovation diminished the guest rooms at a time when a slew of international luxury chains has been opening in Tokyo. But just imagine if the owners did rethink the rooms. The Okura\u2019s sense of place and quality of service are exactly what the modern traveller is crying out for and no amount of gold points and pillow menus can compensate for its loss.<\/p>\n
There is some comfort that the south wing, built in 1973, will remain but there seems to be little hope for the architectural jewel of the main building. Hiroshi Matsukuma, head of Docomomo Japan, whose mission is to look after modernist architecture, says he is \u201cshocked\u201d by the news but is at a loss as to what can be done. \u201cIt\u2019s a masterpiece,\u201d he says. \u201cIt has a cultural and historical value that can never be reproduced again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tokyo citizens have become inured to the disappearance of familiar buildings. Earthquakes, firebombing and developers have all played their part. In the past decade some of the most painful demolitions have included the pre-war Sanshin Building in Hibiya and the Hanezawa Garden, a sprawling wooden residence and garden in Hiroo that dated back to 1915. Even the family home of the empress couldn\u2019t be saved from the bulldozers. The central post office, a piece of startling white modernism from 1931, would have gone too if politician Kunio Hatoyama hadn\u2019t taken a stand.<\/p>\n
Change and construction are features of life in Tokyo and contribute to the city\u2019s thrilling sense of purpose and energy. But should they come at the expense of the capital\u2019s history and identity? The greatest world cities \u2013 Tokyo among them \u2013 are the ones that are rich in texture.<\/p>\n
In recent years, two other classic Tokyo hotels from the 1960s \u2013 Palace Hotel (1961) and Capitol Tokyu (1963) \u2013 have been redeveloped and, without wanting to take anything away from their carefully designed new incarnations, it does seem that a distinctive vintage of Tokyo\u2019s design history is in danger of disappearing.<\/p>\n
One of the most impressive aspects of Tokyo\u2019s winning bid for the 2020 Olympic Games was its pledge to use existing venues, many of which are now classics \u2013 such as Mamoru Yamada\u2019s Budokan judo arena or Kenzo Tange\u2019s stunning Yoyogi National Stadium \u2013 that were built for the 1964 Games. The Okura was part of that effort to make Tokyo shine as it emerged from the devastation of the war. How sad to think that it won\u2019t be there for the second act. In the future, anyone interested in seeing what the original Okura looked like will have to watch the 1966 Cary Grant film Walk, Don\u2019t Run, which is set during the first Tokyo Olympics and opens with a scene at the hotel.<\/p>\n
Of course, redeveloping the Okura makes sense in purely economic terms (no surprise that some of the major investors of the group include construction company Taisei and Mitsubishi Estate). And here\u2019s the problem: the vested interests of construction and property are too powerful to resist. The new 550-room hotel will reopen in 2019, in time for the Rugby World Cup and the Olympics the following year.<\/p>\n
No doubt there will be much talk of \u201cJapanese aesthetics\u201d and omotenashi (Japanese hospitality) surrounding the new building but the existing hotel already has both in spades. The demise of the Okura is akin to the loss of a good friend. Tokyo will not be the same without it.<\/p>\n
Monocle comment: let\u2019s save the Okura<\/p>\n
It is one of Japan\u2019s most wonderful and irritating traits: the compulsive need to tear down the old and whack up a structure that\u2019s a near-perfect facsimile or something completely different. When it comes to infrastructure, we\u2019re all for sparkly and brand-spanking new. However, when it comes to historical sites and architectural one-offs, preservation rather than a neatly dressed demolition team needs to win out over redevelopment.<\/p>\n
The Okura Group\u2019s plan to demolish their landmark namesake property is not only wrong from a brand perspective, it\u2019s damaging to Japan\u2019s image as a nation committed to good design and innovation \u2013 not to mention fine inn keeping. Rather than ripping down one of the most loved hotels in Asia, the investors should work with the best engineers to think of a way of maintaining the existing building while still erecting a tower to accommodate more guests.<\/p>\n
If any country can think of designing a smart solution for others to follow, it\u2019s Japan \u2013 and its all-powerful construction conglomerates. The last thing Tokyo needs is another sanitised five-star property. What it must protect is the well maintained and theatrically modernist centrepiece played so beautifully by Hotel Okura.<\/p>\n