Kikutake Kiyonori's Suspended Hotel
The Tokoen Main Building (東光園本館) is the main building of a hotel of 1964 in Kaike Onsen, Yonago City, Tottori Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on October 27, 2017 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).
The Agency records a steel-framed reinforced concrete building of seven storeys and a basement with a rooftop tower and a building area of 761 square metres, altered in 1991; registration number 31-231.
A Hotel Hung from Six Columns
The Tokoen Main Building is a hotel of seven storeys and a basement in steel-framed reinforced concrete, facing the sea at Kaike Onsen (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Six main columns carry the seventh floor, from which the guest floors on the fifth and sixth levels are hung, so that every floor can have a different plan.
An exhibition catalogue of the Shimane Art Museum says it was designed by Kikutake Kiyonori and rebuilt after the hotel was chosen to lodge Emperor Showa for the national tree-planting festival of 1964. Each composite column joins a main column to three auxiliary columns that resist sideways sway; the guest floors hang from the top-floor beams on prestressed steel rods about 4 metres apart, and the column-free fourth floor is a garden in the air.
Why It Was Registered
The Agency registered it as a model of design, the culmination of Metabolist architecture, with outstanding structural design down to its stairs.
What to Look For
Look at the six composite columns rising outside, the hung fifth and sixth floors and the column-free garden floor below them (Agency for Cultural Affairs; Shimane Art Museum).
Visiting
The building is still a hotel, and no official information on visits other than as a guest was found.
Q&A
- When was the Tokoen Main Building built?
- In 1964 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).
- Who designed the Tokoen Main Building?
- Kikutake Kiyonori (Shimane Art Museum).
- What is special about the structure of Tokoen?
- Six columns carry the top floor, from which the guest floors are hung.
- Why is Tokoen a registered cultural property?
- The Agency calls it the culmination of Metabolist architecture.
- When was the Tokoen Main Building registered?
- On October 27, 2017 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).
Basic Information
| Name | Tokoen Main Building (東光園本館) |
|---|---|
| Location | 2155 Kaike Onsen 3-chome, Yonago City, Tottori Prefecture, and other lots |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure) |
| Year Designated | Registered 2017/10/27 (Heisei 29) |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Steel-framed reinforced concrete, 7 storeys and basement, rooftop tower, 761 m² |
| Owner | Benefit Hotel Co., Ltd. |
| Public Access | In use as a hotel (no visiting information) |
References
- Tokoen Main Building (Database of National Cultural Properties, Agency for Cultural Affairs)
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00012012
- Kikutake Kiyonori: Architecture in San'in (Shimane Art Museum exhibition material, Japanese)
- https://www.shimane-art-museum.jp/upload/kikutake_san%27in.pdf
Last verified: 2026.10.16