Hotel Okura

before destruction film stills from Okura by HUGO TILLMAN By the time you read this article, the Hotel Okura’s Main Wing, built in 1962 — a fantastic testament to Japanese modernist architecture — will be closed and, sadly, destroyed. It will be gone to make room for a new tower structure, in anticipation of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Designed by the architects Yoshiro Taniguchi and Hideo Kosaka, it housed works by the woodblock print artist Shiko Munakata and the ceramic master Kenkichi Tomimoto. It’s difficult to imagine that this perfect interpretation of traditional Japanese architecture is gone forever, along with its murals, paper screens, pendant lanterns, tearoom, and famous Orchid Room and Bar. This was considered Tokyo’s most-loved hotel.