Grand Prince Hotel Shin Takanawa

A 908-room hotel that opened on 25 April 1982 in Takanawa, Minato City, Tokyo. Designed by Togo Murano — one of the defining figures of modern Japanese architecture — the building represents one of his last major commissions, completed when he was in his nineties, and is notable for its curved, ornamental façade in an era dominated by rectilinear glass towers.

Use

Office tower

Area

Minato City

Completed

1982

Developer

Prince Hotels (Seibu Group)

Architect

Togo Murano

Togo Murano’s Final Large Work

In 1982, when most architects are long retired, Togo Murano completed the Grand Prince Hotel Shin Takanawa. He was over ninety years old. The hotel opened on 25 April of that year on the Takanawa plateau in Minato City — a wooded hillside above Shinagawa Station — with 908 guest rooms and a façade whose curves, mouldings, and decorative registers recalled Murano’s lifelong preference for ornament over austerity.

Murano (1891–1984) had been a major force in Japanese architecture since the prewar era. Works such as the Nissei Theatre in Hibiya and the Takarazuka Hotel in Hyogo are among his celebrated commissions. The Grand Prince Hotel Shin Takanawa stands near the end of that body of work: a large urban hotel delivered with the assurance of a practitioner who had seen every fashion come and go, and who continued to build on his own terms. The result is a hotel that reads differently from almost every other high-rise built in Tokyo during the bubble-era surge of the early 1980s.

Takanawa’s Hotel District

The area around the hotel’s address — 3-13-1 Takanawa, Minato City — has long served as Tokyo’s southern gateway to premium accommodation. Multiple Prince Hotels occupy the hillside, linked by landscaped grounds that preserve something of the old daimyo estate character the area once had. Shinagawa Station, now a Shinkansen stop, is a short walk downhill, making the plateau convenient both as a destination and as a staging point for travel elsewhere. The combination of a quieter, greener setting with proximity to one of the busiest rail hubs in the country gives Takanawa a distinct hospitality niche.

Summary

The Grand Prince Hotel Shin Takanawa opened in 1982 with 908 rooms, designed by Togo Murano in what would prove to be the final years of his extraordinary career. Its ornamental, curved exterior — unusual even when new and now a historical document in its own right — stands on the Takanawa hillside above Shinagawa Station. For visitors interested in the human dimension of Japanese architecture, knowing that a ninety-year-old master finished this building is reason enough to look carefully at its surface.

Looking for a hotel in the Shinagawa or Takanawa area? Check Rakuten Travel for options nearby.