“The Okura Tokyo” will begin a new era in September 2019. The new Okura will consist of two buildings, the ``Okura Heritage Wing'' and the ``Okura Prestige Tower,'' and will continue to evolve while preserving the essence and traditions of Okura. 12 stories that reaffirm the charm of Okura and explore the new The Okura Tokyo.
Hotel Okura Tokyo is loved by celebrities around the world.
It was also a project that Kishichiro Okura devoted his life to.
Hotel Okura opened on May 1962, 37, two years before the Tokyo Olympics, as an international, ultra-luxury Japanese hotel with the theme of ``Japanese beauty and spirit that connect with the world.'' The person who decided to build this hotel, which bears his family's name, was the eldest son of Kihachiro Okura, a well-known businessman from the Meiji and Taisho eras, and the second generation of the Okura Zaibatsu.
Although Okura is known as a hobbyist, it is also well known that he continued to support many talented artists, including Yokoyama Taikan, Japanese painters, and opera singers.
Kishichiro Okura was born in 1882 (Meiji 15). He grew up comfortably as the heir of a conglomerate, but at the age of 18 he went to England to study, and during the seven years he spent there, he deepened his knowledge of all aspects of culture, including boats, skiing, cars, art, and music. Okura, who was known for his splendid private life, was also known as ``Baron Okura.'' Among the various businesses that he inherited after his father's death, he placed particular emphasis on the hotel business, including the Imperial Hotel, which opened in the year he was born. However, after the defeat in the war, he was expelled from public office due to the dissolution of the Zaibatsu, and was forced to give up everything. After his banishment was lifted in 1951, Okura hoped to return to the Imperial Hotel, which he had previously managed. Although this did not materialize, his passion for hotels was hard to shake off, and in 26 (Showa 1958), he raised 33 billion yen in capital and built a new hotel with the goal of ``building the best hotel in the world.'' Establish a company for
Panoramic view of Hotel Okura, which was completed after a year and a half of construction. All guest rooms are outside rooms so that you can see the scenery outside the window, and the Mitsuya-style architecture is the first of its kind in a hotel, consisting of three wings: east, south, and north.
The hotel will be constructed at Akasaka Aoi-cho 2 (currently Toranomon 10-4-1878), which was the residence of Matsudaira Yamatonokami, the lord of the Maebashi domain, during the Edo period. For a while after the Meiji Restoration, it was used as a geography dormitory for the Ministry of the Interior, but in 11 (Meiji XNUMX), it was purchased in stages by his father, Kihachiro. In addition to the mansion where Okura was born and raised, there was Japan's first private art museum, the Okura Shukokan, which housed the Okura family's collection, but the area other than the museum was used as the site for the construction of a hotel.
At this time, Okura was 76 years old. The following year, in 1959, Iwajiro Noda, who was the chairman of the holding company restructuring committee involved in dismantling the zaibatsu, was selected as president, and within three years the company was able to open Hotel Okura. In his ``My Resume'' (serialized in the Nihon Keizai Shimbun), Noda wrote that upon accepting this important role, ``Currently, all hotels in Japan are imitations of Western countries and do not exhibit Japanese characteristics.'' (Omitted) When I was assigned the hotel, I said that I wanted it to incorporate Japanese culture, art, and tradition, and I completely agreed with Mr. Okura," he says. Once completed, Hotel Okura became a hotel that lived up to its name. Okura died in 34 at the age of 1963. He is said to have said, ``If I make something weird, I'll complain even for 80 years,'' and he stayed in a hotel room for less than a year before his death, but Noda said, ``I never complained once.'' In fact, he was happy,'' he wrote in the aforementioned series.
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Photography by © The Okura Tokyo
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