Legendary hotelier and brand creator Ian Schrager gives inside access to The Tokyo Edition, Toranomon in one of Japan’s bustling districts
The moment one sets foot at The Tokyo Edition, Toranomon, the seamless balance between the refined, simple approach of Japan’s culture and the luxury hotel’s desire to go out of the box and create something entirely new, instantly unfolds. A dream-team collaboration between Marriott International, Ian Schrager and Mori Trust, led by its brilliant president and CEO, Miwako Date, the hotel reverberates Tokyo’s full essence in a glimpse without having to leave the premises.
“We wanted to build the hotel in Toranomon with the elegance and simplicity that can be seen everywhere in Japan, but without the clichés. The hotel relies on a pure and simple restrained aesthetic—it really is an East meets West experience,” says Schrager, founder of his namesake company that brought to existence some of the world’s most prominent hotel and property brands, and one of the proponents of The Tokyo Edition, Toronamon.
A true bespoke haven that blends the best of the East and West, The Tokyo Edition, Toranomon is a design collaboration between Schrager and Japanese architect Kengo Kuma.
The urban resort features a soaring public space inspired by Buddhist temples: their structure, purpose and organisation. There is an inviting central courtyard designed as a venue to come together and interact. A 450-foot two-storey lobby serves as a centralised space that encourages communal and social interaction in all its forms. Dining, entertainment and other experiences, each uniquely different in look and feel, crystalise from the lobby in the same manner as the peripheral buildings do in a Buddhist temple.
Drawing inspiration from precious stones and rare elements such as sapphire, Japanese jade and gold, the restaurants, bars and entertainment areas are a cacophony of black, blue and jade hues. The rest of the spaces are dressed in natural materials like walnut, oak, bronze, travertine, glass and silk, juxtaposed with yamato-bari (a traditional Japanese wood cladding) and lush greenery. The result is an eclectic mix of elements that has a clear reverence to Japanese culture in the subtlest of ways.