The Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, or "Teikoku Hotel," has occupied the same privileged location, across from Hibiya Park and minutes from the Imperial Palace, for over a century. There's nothing "backstreet" about it, but when offered an opportunity to view the hotel's most prestigious accommodations — the Frank Lloyd Wright Suite — I resolve to also explore the metaphorical backstreets of this grand establishment.
Originally built to accommodate foreign guests of the Meiji Emperor, the Imperial Hotel first opened in 1890. The three-story structure designed by architect Yuzuru Watanabe in the Second Empire style featured a mansard roof and frilly ironwork, as well as interior walls embellished with Japanese paintings of flora and fauna.
Razed in 1917 by one of Tokyo's frequent fires, the replacement building reflected the lavish imagination of American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. His design mingled Mayan shapes and Japanese sensibilities in a geometric ziggurat of carved layers that embraced a massive lily pond at its entrance. Wright's sketches reveal that the buildings spelled out the hotel's initials, the letters "I" and "H."
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