I became enamored of Frank Lloyd Wright in the 1980s, while living in Tokyo and writing about the Imperial Hotel for Frommer’s Japan. But it was only recently that I learned how enamored America’s most famous architect was of Japan, when I drove the Frank Lloyd Wright Trail in Wisconsin and saw some of his private Asian art collection. It’s hard to imagine how Wright’s career might have evolved had he never visited Japan. I guess we have that in common.
Click here for more information on Wisconsin’s Frank Lloyd Wright Trail.
A short introduction to Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright was born in Wisconsin in 1867 and died in Arizona in 1959 at the age of 91. He was prolific. He designed more than 1,100 architectural works during his long career, but only about half of his ideas were ever realized.
Still, more than a third of his buildings are on the National Register of Historic Places or included in the National Register of Historic Districts. In 2019 his work won UNESCO World Heritage status, with eight of his buildings designated The 20th-Century Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright. Among them is Taliesin, Wright’s home and studio for more than four decades and the jewel of the Frank Lloyd Wright Trail. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City is also on the list, which I revisited this year just to admire that spiraling ramp.
For more on how the life and times of Frank Lloyd Wrigh influenced his works in Wisconsin, see Frank Lloyd Wright in Wisconsin.
Frank Lloyd Wright in Japan
One of Wright’s first encounters with Japanese art and architecture was probably in Chicago, at Japan’s entry in the 1893 World Expo. It centered on a replica of Japan’s famous Buddhist temple, Byodoin, whose Phoenix Hall is featured on the Japanese ¥10 coin.
In fact, his first trip abroad, in 1905, was not to Europe to view its architectural treasures but rather to Japan. He spent two months there, and although the country was fast becoming modernized and industrialized, Wright focused his travels on historic Japan. He noted how traditional Japanese architecture, made of wood and other natural materials, harmonized with nature. No doubt he also noticed the beauty and care given to objects used in everyday life, from ceramic bowls to folding fans to carved transoms (ranma) above sliding doors.
Wright so admired Japan, he considered it “the most romantic, artistic, nature-inspired country on earth.” He even wrote a treatise on Japanese aesthetics in 1912 called “The Japanese Print: An Interpretation.”
It’s no surprise, therefore, to learn that Wright was a keen collector of Japanese art throughout his life, mostly woodblock prints (ukiyo-e) but also screens, textiles, pottery, lacquerware and sculpture. When he died, he had 6,000 Japanese prints alone in his private collection.
But I didn’t know any of this when I toured the Imperial Hotel back in the ‘80s. In fact, it was only in 2021, while visiting his home and studio in Chicago’s Oak Park, that I noticed woodblock prints and learned about his obsession.
I saw more of his Japanese prints and art visiting sites on the Frank Lloyd Wright Trail, especially in Taliesin, where the guide remarked that Wright “spent all of his commission from the Imperial Hotel on art.” Not only was Wright a collector of Japanese art, but he was also a dealer.
Tokyo’s Imperial Hotel
Visiting Tokyo today, it’s hard to imagine that in 1868, when Japan opened to the outside world following more than 200 years of isolation, it was a feudal, agrarian society ruled by a shogun. Change came quickly, not least of which was the vexing question of how to accommodate foreigners, many of whom might not be keen sleeping on the ground on a futon.
At the request of the Emperor, Japan’s first hotel built specifically for an international market opened in 1890 on prime real estate across from Hibiya Park and the Imperial Palace. But with ever more visitors pouring in, it was clear that the small hotel made of wood wouldn’t do. It was decided that a more modern and monumental Western structure should take its place.
Wright wanted badly to be the one who designed it, so in 1911 he actively began pursuing the contract. He knew it would be his big break, bigger than anything he had done before. In 1913 he traveled to Japan to discuss the plan, but only in 1916 did he finally get what would be Wright’s first major international commission. Soon thereafter he sailed to Japan, and over the next six years he spent much of his time in Tokyo, even living onsite to create his masterpiece showcasing Western and Japanese styles.
Made of brick, stone and tile, with elegant art deco patterns and ceiling-to-floor terracotta pillars against a dramatic backdrop of green volcanic tuff, The Imperial was far different from anything else in the capital city, or anything else in the world, for that matter. An engineering marvel, it had “floating foundations” to withstand Tokyo’s frequent earthquakes. It contained some 270 guest rooms, a theater, banquet rooms, a library and post office. But Wright didn’t stop there. As with many of his works, Wright also designed much of what went into the building, including its furniture, tableware, and even its stationery.
This plate is a replica of the Cabaret dinnerware Wright designed for the Imperial Hotel, which I bought at Noritake in Nagoya. Although the design is more than 100 years old, I think it looks contemporary still today.
In 1922, with most of his work completed, Wright returned to America. He wasn’t in Tokyo, therefore, for the Imperial Hotel’s grand opening, on September 1, 1923. As luck would have it, this was also the day of the horrific Great Kanto Earthquake, which laid about a third of the city to waste and killed some 140,000 people.
That Wright’s Imperial Hotel survived the earthquake almost intact brought it everlasting fame. The Imperial Hotel did not, however, survive the onslaught of modernization and the crazy pressure exerted on prime real estate in the crowded capital. Wright’s iconic hotel was razed in 1968 to make way for the nondescript, multi-story modern structure that stood in its place by the time I got there. Words cannot describe….
There are vestiges of Wright’s work in the hotel’s latest incarnation, but they are not nearly enough. Take solace, as I do, in the hotel’s Old Imperial Bar. A dark, clubby lounge, it pays tribute to the famous architect with some Wright originals, including walls featuring Oya stone and terracotta, a mural, and a small desk at the entrance.
The thing to order is the signature cocktail Mount Fuji, the bar’s own 1924 creation. Featuring dry gin, lemon juice and pineapple juice, it’s topped with a layer of frothy egg white and a maraschino cherry perched on top: a symbol of a snow-covered Mount Fuji with the sun rising above it.
If money is no object, you can also stay in the Imperial Hotel’s Frank Lloyd Wright® Suite. The only suite endorsed by the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, it incorporates Wright’s designs from the former hotel, including ornamental Oya stone, furniture, light fixtures, and carpets, recreated from the architect’s original sketches.
Meiji Mura and the Imperial Hotel
But really, the best thing to do is to take the Shinkansen bullet train to Nagoya, transferring there for the local train and bus that will take you to Meiji Mura. One of my favorite museums in Japan, it’s an open-air architectural museum featuring 67 buildings mostly from the Meiji Period (1868-1912), all of which were moved and and reconstructed here. Situated on landscaped grounds on the shores of a lake, Meiji Mura (mura means village) includes both traditional Japanese homes and Western homes, churches, government buildings, schools, a bathhouse, a brewery, a post office and even a prison.
Luckily, this is also where Wright’s Imperial Hotel lives on. The reconstructed façade, entrance hall and lobby are on display in all their glory, complete with Oya stones and terracotta, light pillars, and replica Wright-designed chairs. Best of all, it contains a coffee shop; you’ve come this far, so you want to stay a while.
Jiyu Gakuen Myonichikan in Tokyo
Yoshikazu Hani and his wife Motoko founded Jiyu Gakuen in 1921 as a girls’ school with a Christian-oriented creed. The couple was friends with Arata Endo, Wright’s right-hand man and chief draftsman on the Imperial Hotel project. To save money, the school was constructed of wood and plaster and features a soaring central section and symmetrical wings to the east and west. With its geometric designs, constricted and soaring spaces and changing floor heights, it displays some of Wright’s Prairie House elements.
Endo, who designed the school’s auditorium across the street, worked so closely with Wright on the project that they both signed the final plans, the first time in Wright’s career that he shared credit with someone else. Luckily, the school was saved from wrecking balls in the 1990s by being declared an Important Cultural Property. Don’t neglect the museum shop with its FLW-designed products.
Other buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in Japan
Wright drew up plans for some 14 buildings to be constructed in Japan, including private homes (and even a residence for Japan’s prime minister), as well as a new U.S. embassy for Tokyo, a theater, and a hotel for the resort town of Odawara. Only six were actually built, however, including the Imperial Hotel, Jiyu Gakuen, and three residences. Of these, just three Wright structures remain.
In addition to the Imperial Hotel’s shell of itself in Meiji Mura and the girls’ school, Wright designed the Tazaemon Yamamura House in 1918, built as the summer villa of a wealthy sake brewer in Ashiya overlooking Osaka Bay in Hyogo Prefecture. It features the signature Wright hidden entrance, symmetric designs, and small spaces that constrict but then open into soaring ones. It also features Oya stone.
Endo, who was a college classmate of Yamamura’s son-in-law, completed the project after Wright returned to the United States. He therefore shares credit on this project with Wright, too. Now owned by Yodogawa Steel Works, the Yodoko Guest House is open to the public as a museum on designated days. I’ve never been there—but now it’s on my list.
While researching this article about Frank Lloyd Wright in Japan, I also became interested in Arata Endo. Among the many projects he went on to design was a vacation villa in 1928 for an insurance executive. It’s now available for short-term stays (and out of my price range). Called Kachi-tei, it has stonework, geometric designs, overhanging eaves, and an abundance of windows, making it look remarkably like the Prairie-style houses I now recognize as Frank Lloyd Wright’s signature style.
I also read up on Endo’s most famous work, the Koshien Hotel, which bears many similarities to Wright’s Imperial Hotel and is now part of Mukogawa Women’s University in Hyogo Prefecture.
Truly, an education never ends, one of the reasons I love this job.
For more on Frank Lloyd Wright, see my article Frank Lloyd Wright in Wisconsin, published by Belt Magazine, as well as my blog, Wisconsin’s Frank Lloyd Wright Trail.
