“Tokyo Review 010” Toranomon area-2
A town with noble history
The Toranomon area is surrounded by areas such as Hibiya, Shimbashi, Kasumigaseki, Akasaka – Tameike, and Roppongi – Kamiyacho cho. Surrounded by these government/private office districts, small and medium office buildings gradually emerged in the Toranomon area. Mori Building Co., Ltd., which built “Nishi-Shinbashi 2 Mori Building” in 1956, built “Number Buildings” one after another in Minato-ku, and many of them are in the Toranomon area. There are 39 buildings currently owned by Mori Building excluding Roppongi Hills and Ark Hills. The majority (20 buildings) of the buildings are concentrated in the “Toranomon” area.
Hotel Okura, which opened in Toranomon 2-chome in 1962, was a venerable hotel established by Kishichiro Okura, the second generation of the Okura Zaibatsu, who lost its status of “nobility” after the war. It is said that he found the concept of a “Hotel beyond the Imperial Hotel” as his last will as a “the last baron”.
Currently, the main building is being rebuilt in preparation for the second Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo. It is expected to reopen in the spring of 2019. It is designed by Yoshio Taniguchi, the son of Mr. Yoshiro Taniguchi who designed the former main building. It will inherit the “traditional Japanese beauty” from the old main building. The interior and decoration of the former main building including the lobby will be relocated to the new main building as much as possible.
The Okura Shukokan (Okura Museum of Art) established in 1917 is the first private art museum in Japan. It opened in a corner of the Okura House. It contains about 2,500 works of art such as Japanese-Oriental paintings, sculptures, ceramics, Noh masks and 1,000 volumes of books collected in a period of many years by Okura Kihachiro, the founder of the Okura Zaibatsu. It is currently closed, but it will resume in the spring of 2019.
In Toranomon, there is also a famous soba noodle restaurant named “Osaka-ya Sunaba” which was established in 1872. The current store is a building that was built just before the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923. It was patronized by the Meiji swordsmen “Big three Shuu” (Yamaoka Tesshuu, Takahashi Deishuu, Katsu Kaishuu) and others. There are calligraphy works by them in the restaurant.
Don’t you think that the Toranomon area has a different atmosphere from Shimbashi and other areas?
The Toranomon is about to change greatly. On both sides of “Shintora-Dori Avenue”, open cafes which are made possible by “National Strategy Special Zone” are scheduled to open on the sidewalks which are 13 meters in width. From the next post, I would like to explore this area focusing on “The loop road No.2 Shimbashi- Toranomon district category 2 urban redevelopment project” which had produced the “Toranomon Hills”.
