Imperial Hotel, Tokyo 1916. Watanabe's Imperial Hotel building was destroyed by fire on 16 April 1922, while Edward, Prince of Wales was visiting Japan. The fire broke out during the day, with a full staff on hand and most of the guests out at an Imperial garden party. No lives were lost, but business at the hotel stopped until the South wing of the new hotel could be opened. The second Imperial Hotel was built from 1919–1923, and officially opened on 1 September 1923. This hotel was the best-known of Frank Lloyd Wright's buildings in Japan. It was designed roughly in the shape
Imperial Hotel, Tokyo which had burnt down just 10 days earlier. The North wing of the new hotel and a partially completed center section opened on 2 July 1922, in time to host the reunion of the Annapolis class of 1881. At this point, estimates were that it would only take about 6 weeks to complete the hotel, and since the South wing was a mirror image of the North, Wright decided that he could leave the completion to be supervised by Arato Endo. Wright left Japan on 22 July 1922, never to return. The hotel took another 11 months to complete, and