My target when visiting Museum Meiji-Mura was Frank Lloyd Wright’s Imperial Hotel lobby. In 1916, America’s greatest architect received the commission for the next iteration of Tokyo’s Imperial Hotel. Wright already admired Japanese design philosophies and had done work in the country before. He arrived in Tokyo in 1919 to begin work on the hotel.
A Shaky History
In 1923, the Great Kanto Earthquake shook Japan’s capital, toppling many buildings in the city. Wright’s hotel, which opened the same year, was only minimally damaged. Wright promoted the idea that it was the only building that escaped unharmed. Though not completely true, it was used for post-quake relief efforts and stood many more years in service as a hotel.
Surviving early demolition, war, and many other uses, the hotel finally closed and was slated for demolition in 1967. After a campaign failed to save all of it, a section, the main lobby and reflecting pool, were selected to go to Museum Meiji-Mura. The disassembled pieces made it to Inuyama and were stored a few years before reconstruction began. And, over the next 17 years, it was rebuilt and restored to its glory and grandeur.
The Imperial Hotel Lobby
Rebuilt in a corner of the architecture museum with no buildings behind it, a visitor can get a spectacular view of this beautiful edifice. The reflecting pool sits in front forming the tableau. Several of Wright’s design philosophies are immediately apparent from the compression and release to the horizontal lines and natural materials.
I felt invited by the architecture into the space. It was a comforting space but also a grand space. Around every corner are details in design. Everything was thought out. What would a visitor see when sitting? What would someone experience climbing the stairs? All of these things were thought through in the design.
A Japanese Beauty
At one point in my exploration, I took Wright’s advice to observe and learn from nature to heart as I pondered the beauty and design of a spider’s web in one of the windows. These spiders were all over. They are beautiful. A kind of golden-silk orb weaver, these arachnids are brightly colored and make intricate webs.
Japanese folklore tells of these spiders changing into beautiful women to seduce men. It has a bite like a black widow, but I find it much more beautiful. At one point on my Japanese adventure I even wrote a haiku about them.
Rapid, express, fast,
Japanese, orb weavers too,
Patience, poise, beauty.
I’m glad I got a chance to experience this beautiful architecture. It wasn’t the only Frank Lloyd Wright building on this trip, but more about Jiyu Gakuen Myonichikan in a later post.
