Shibusawa Eiichi and Okura Kihachiro applied in 1887 to form the Tokyo Hotel Company, and the Imperial Household Ministry was its largest investor. Yuzuru Watanabe designed the original hotel, a three-story wood and brick building that opened in 1890 and burned in April 1922.
Frank Lloyd Wright designed its successor in a Mayan Revival style, using poured concrete, concrete block and carved oya stone. It had seismic joints about every 20 meters. Arata Endo supervised its completion after Wright left Japan in 1922. The article notes the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake damaged it, despite a widely repeated claim that it was unharmed. It was demolished in 1967 and 1968, and its lobby wing was rebuilt at Meiji-mura.
The current main tower opened in 1970 with 772 rooms. Redevelopment plans announced in 2021 call for a new tower.
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