The Okura Tokyo Opens After Four-Year Rebuild

The Okura Tokyo opened to the public on 12 September 2019, four years after the original Hotel Okura Tokyo closed its doors in August 2015. The rebuilt property in central Tokyo offers 508 rooms spread across two new buildings, set within 1.3 hectares of gardens.

The most closely watched element was the main lobby. First opened in 1962, the original was designed under Yoshiro Taniguchi; its recreation is the work of his son, Yoshio Taniguchi, the architect behind the redesign of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Signature details have returned: the hexagonal Okura Lantern ceiling lights, lacquered furniture arranged in a plum-flower pattern, the world map with its time-zone clock, the Four Petal Flowers Nishijin brocade tapestry by Kenkichi Tomimoto, and shoji windows with Asanoha-mon leaf-pattern latticework.

The Okura Heritage Wing is a 17-storey, 75-metre building with around 75 rooms of roughly 60 square metres, most with garden views on three sides. It is home to the returning Japanese restaurant Yamazato and the Chosho-an tea ceremony room.

The 41-storey, 188-metre Okura Prestige Tower places guest rooms from the 28th floor upwards, with standard rooms of about 50 square metres. It houses Sazanka teppanyaki on the top floor, all-day dining at Orchid, Chinese restaurant Toh-Ka-Lin, a fitness centre and spa across the 26th and 27th floors, and the Heian Room ballroom for up to 2,000 guests. A duplex suite of 730 square metres on the 39th and 40th floors was billed as the largest hotel suite in Japan.

Culture is part of the programme. Every guest floor of the tower displays traditional handcrafts from Japan’s 47 prefectures under the “Takumi of Japan” theme, while the neighbouring Okura Museum of Art, founded in 1917 as Japan’s first privately operated art museum, holds around 2,500 works including three National Treasures. The full opening announcement is on the Okura group’s pressroom; more on the city in our Tokyo guide.