Wright had always been fascinated by Japanese culture, so when the opportunity arose to design a hotel in Tokyo, he was more than willing to apply. He said that he found Japanese art “nearer to the earth…than any European Civilization alive or dead” (23). The hotel was to mark Japan’s emergence into the modern world. To accomplish this, Wright designed the hotel as a combination of Japanese and Western architecture and construction of the hotel was completed in 1922. It was built on a floating foundation, and when it survived the Kanto earthquake of 1923, it was hailed as a great achievement in “aseismic” architectural planning. The hotel is one of Wright’s largest, most extravagant works. It is lavishly decorated in carved Oya stone. It is also known for its striking symmetry. The interior of the hotel is covered in small terraces and courts. It also contains connecting bridges between the two long, parallel wings of guest rooms. One of the main draws of the hotel was that Wright managed to make every guest room different from the one before it, a feat almost unheard of in hotel construction. The hotel was, sadly, demolished in 1968, but its lobby still stands at the Meiji Village in Tokyo (24).
