1969 – Yasuyo Building – Nobumichi Akashi

This unusual, narrow commercial building resembling a stack of twisted bolts stands right next to the eastern entrance of Shinjuku Station and is famous for Kakiden, a long-established restaurant which occupies the 6th to the 9th floors and has interiors designed by Yoshiro Taniguchi. Kokin Salons is on the 6th floor, Yasuyo Hall on the 7th, and there are more guestrooms with Western-style tables and chairs on the floor above. The building’s top floor is furnished in the traditional Japanese style: two of the three rooms are 12 and 10 tatami in size, while the third is of more intimate proportions. Part of the kaiseki restaurant on the basement floor is an art gallery. Architect Nobumichi Akashi described his design for this building as anchored solely in the fast pace of Tokyo and in the present moment.