Rokumeikan

• Built: 1883, Josiah Conder
• Japanese: 鹿鳴館 (Rokumeikan)

The Rokumeikan (lit. "Deer Cry Pavilion"), designed by Josiah Conder and completed in 1883, was the premier location where the Meiji government provided lodgings for prominent foreign guests (including royals and heads of state). It also served, variously, as restaurant, event venue, or private club, as well as in other roles depending on the occasion.

It was preceded in that role by the Enryôkan, a wooden structure in Western style built somewhat hastily in 1869 on the grounds of the Hama Detached Palace (Hama rikyû) to house Prince Alfred, second son of Queen Victoria, who in that year became the first British royal to visit Japan. The Enryôkan also housed Ulysses S. Grant and his wife in 1879 and King Kalakaua of Hawaii in 1881, among others, before being replaced in its function by the Rokumeikan. Much of the Western-style furniture and other furnishings were removed from the Enryôkan to the Rokumeikan at that time.

The Rokumeikan project got its start when Conder was approached in 1880 by Foreign Minister Inoue Kaoru to design a space for the Japanese government to entertain Western visitors in Western style. Inoue would remain actively involved in the design, and other aspects of the project, throughout its construction; he attempted, though not entirely successfully, to guide Conder into designing something more fully Western in style, without such "Saracenic" influences as Conder ended up including. It was also Inoue who approved the name "Rokumeikan," which did not appear on any signage on the building, but which was shown in gaslights at the hall's opening ceremonies on November 28, 1883.

In designing the Rokumeikan, Conder wished to create something in brick or stone which would be more resilient in a fire than Japan's traditionally wooden buildings, but something which would still reflect a non-European aesthetic. He thus drew upon Moorish and Venetian (that is, classically "Oriental[ist]") styles in his design. The end result was a two-story brick building, painted white, in a style Conder called "Renaissance villa" style. It featured a trio of arches over the entrance of a central pavilion which projected slightly from a facade that consisted chiefly, on both floors, of open porches lined by columns and arches. Accents of metal filigree and palmleaf motifs on the capitals suggested a Moorish flavor, and the entire structure was topped by a mansard roof (squarish, and slightly sloping).

The original plans for the Rokumeikan have been lost, but numerous photographs, floorplans, and written descriptions survive, along with some pieces of the structure itself. The ground floor consisted chiefly of dining rooms, smoking rooms, a library, and a billiard hall. The main staircase was carved in wood and supported by Corinthian columns. The second floor housed salons, bedroom suites, and a ballroom, the two floors combined covering roughly 15,000 square feet of floor space.

Construction began in January 1881, and was completed in July 1883. It is said to have perhaps cost as much as 180,000 yen, a very sizable sum, but still quite a bit less than certain other projects of the time, such as the palace Conder designed for Prince Arisugawa, or the 240,000 yen original wooden National Diet Building. Following its opening that November, the Rokumeikan was not only host to numerous foreign dignitaries, but also to events such as an annual ball held every November 3, in honor of the emperor's birthday, attended by many members of the Imperial family (though typically not by the emperor himself). Balls and parties at the Rokumeikan often attracted as many as one thousand attendees, including high-ranking government ministers and officials, foreign consuls based in Yokohama, business tycoons, and prominent members of the resident foreign community. An additional train was often run following these events, especially for those seeking to return to Yokohama.

References

• Dallas Finn, "Reassessing the Rokumeikan," in Ellen Conan (ed.), Challenging Past and Present: The Metamorphosis of Nineteenth-Century Japanese Art, University of Hawaii Press (2006), 227-239.