Imperial Hotel, Tokyo least 10 structures that have been part of the Imperial Hotel, including two designed by Frank Lloyd Wright: The original Imperial Hotel opened in November 1890 on the Northeast corner of what is now the hotel property. The hotel faced roughly North, with parts of the Imperial Palace moats (no longer extant) across streets on the North and East sides of the building. The hotel was backed by key Japanese leaders, such as Foreign Minister Count Inoue Kaoru and Viscount Shibusawa Eiichi. Shibusawa and Okura Kihachiro submitted an application to form the Tokyo Hotel Co. on November 28, 1887, in
Imperial Hotel (company) Imperial Hotel (company) On November 28, 1887, Kihachiro Okura and Eiichi Shibusawa submitted an application to form a new company called Yugen Sekinin Tokyo Hoteru (Tokyo Hotel Co.), in order to "build a large hotel in Tokyo and to conduct the business of renting rooms to foreign guests, and for parties and other events...". There were initially 21 investors, with the largest (21.15%) being the Imperial Household Ministry. Site preparation for the first Imperial Hotel started in July 1888, and construction was begun in the fall of that year. On 7 July 1890, with the hotel almost complete, the name