When the Hotel Okura in Tokyo shuts its doors at the end of August, legions of former guests and architecture aficionados worldwide will mourn—myself included. It was here that I stayed on my very first visit to Japan in 1982. The uniformed bellmen with their pillbox hats were my first encounter with Japanese hospitality. Breakfast in the Orchid Room was my first taste of Japanese produce—white peaches painstakingly peeled to perfection. And the building itself was my first experience of the country's magnificent architecture. A masterpiece of Midcentury Modernism with traditional Japanese overtones, the Hotel Okura is in a class of its own.
Completed in 1962, the hotel implicitly heralded the end of Japan's post'World War II reconstruction and the start of its growing role in global affairs. Designed under the aegis of the architect Yoshiro Taniguchi—the father of Yoshio Taniguchi, who renovated the lobby a few years ago—it was intended for the growing number of international visitors.
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