Checking Out - The Final Days Of Hotel Okura

Checking Out - The Final Days Of Hotel Okura

- Russel Wong

The announcement that the Hotel Okura was slated for demolition in the summer of 2015 reverberated around the world, and was duly met with harsh criticism. Architects, designers and historians, not to mention the hotel’s former patrons — including heads of state, world-class actors and fashion house moguls — lamented that the Okura’s unique sensibility could never be replicated. Many fear that the ‘renewal,’ which comes in advance of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, marks the beginning of a misguided campaign to make way for glitzier, modern establishments to accommodate foreign spectators at the expense of the capital’s invaluable heritage sites. 

Photographer Russel Wong jumped at the chance to capture the Hotel during its last days of operation.

“Hotel Okura has been very close to my heart in many ways. Its embodiment of 60s modernism, and culmination of the finest craftsmanship of the day are just some of the reasons I love it. The last portrait I have of my mum and dad too was shot in the gardens just outside the coffee house.