Architecture has been a big passion of mine since I have lived in Tokyo. Iconic buildings from the postwar era brought to life the Japanese economic miracle, and I began portraying some of them here. It ended up being one of the mainstays of this blog, with more than 100 buildings or structures featured, not just in Japan but on all five continents.
What follows is a mini-guide of Tokyo’s architecture as written about on this blog, with an emphasis on the postwar period from 1950-1970. The buildings span architectural masterpieces by Japan’s starchitects, spiritual buildings and complexes, and relatively unknown gems. Collectively they help paint a picture of the remarkable transformation this country and this city has undergone (and to some extent still is).
Let’s start with the buildings that aren’t physically there anymore, and where this blog has already become an archive of bygone days. The Nakagin Capsule Tower was the first concrete structure I featured here, and it was demolished in 2022. The Hotel Okura, a favorite of mine and a stone throw away from my former home, was also demolished in 2015 (to my chagrin). Two avant-garde commercial buildings, “Ichibankan” and “Nibankan” have been renovated and are today beyond recognition. Long before I arrived, early postwar American embassy housing was torn down to make space for a new complex. My American diplomat friend told me that the post made it onto an embassy mailing list and sent a lot of people down memory lane (as evident from the comments!).
Other architectural gems mainly from the miracle period that made it onto these pages and are still standing are, in no particular order, Mayekawa’s Metropolitan Festival Hall, Le Corbusier’s Museum of Western Art, Kikutake’s Sakuradai Village, Tange’s Yoyogi National Gymnasium (more here), Kikutake’s Sky House, Watanabe’s Gunkan Higashi Shinjuku (aka Battleship Building), Maki’s Hillside Terrace Daikanyama, Azuma-tei (aka Tower House), Villas near Aoyama / Shibuya (in this case no villas but modernist apartment buildings), the Kasumigaseki Building (Japan’s first skyscraper), the NOA building by Seiichi Shirai (my favorite?), Komazawa Olympic Park and International House Japan (soon to be integrated into a new Roppongi Hills project).
The city’s urban (re-)development and its manifestation in stone caught my eye early on. Japanese public housing projects, or danchi might be drab and faceless, however they’re an integral part of postwar (housing) history. Old houses that refuse to go are also a ubiquitous, if now rarer, phenomenon. Large mixed-use corporate redevelopments increasingly dominate the cityscape in the center, e.g., Yebisu Garden Place, Toranomon Hills, or ARK Hills. Along the way, Tokyo Tower Views reveal a dramatically changed skyline. On this, also check out my academic writing.
To end on the somewhat obscure, I was intrigued by religious buildings from the get-go, probably thanks to the eerie Reiyukai Temple, a stone’s throw away from where I first lived. Jyo-Senji, a complex of another Buddhist sect near Shibuya, is a whole lot more inviting and human-scale. St. Mary’s Cathedral is Kenzo Tange’s most beautiful building, in my own book at least, while the generic Tokyo Mormon Temple could be anywhere in the world. Further out of the central city is the Rissho Kosei Kai HQ, impressive mainly due to its size and expanse.
Anyone visiting Tokyo today might find this list interesting. Obviously some of these posts have been written 13 years ago when I had just discovered my love for Tokyo and for architecture. Many others have become out of date. That’s perhaps also the beauty of using this list for some contemporary explorations–go find out what has changed, and what makes the city tick today. I even put some of the buildings onto a map back then for easy reference. It still works!
