Imperial Crown Style

The Imperial Crown Style (帝冠様式, teikan yōshiki) of Japanese architecture developed during the Japanese Empire in the early twentieth century. The style is identified by Japanese-style roofing on top of Neoclassical styled buildings; and can have a centrally elevated structure with a pyramidal hip roof. Outside of the Japanese mainland, Imperial Crown Style architecture often included regional architectural elements. Before the end of World War II, the style was originally referred to as Emperor's Crown Amalgamate Style, and sometimes Emperor's Crown Style (帝冠式, Teikanshiki).

Starting in Japan in the 1930s, this Western and Japanese eclectic architectural style was promoted by Itō Chūta, Sano Toshikata, and Takeda Goichi. Itō, Sano, and Takeda had been appointed as judges for architectural design competitions, held a preferences for Japonesque aesthetics to be incorporated into the design guidelines, and chose designs where a Japanese styled roof was integrated into a Western style reinforced concrete building.

The prototype for the style was developed by architect Shimoda Kikutaro for the Imperial Diet Building (present National Diet Building) in 1920, and reached its peak in the 1930s until the end of World War II. The style ran contrary to modernism and placed an emphasis on including traditional Japanese architectural elements, in a distinct expression of Japanese Western Eclectic Architecture.

During the 1920s and 1930s the last buildings with architectural designs drawing from artistic historicism were constructed. This was due to a decline in the strict adherence to the design rules that defined classic historicism in architecture, and gave way to an eclectic architectural style which included aspects of Frank Lloyd Wright, Modernism and Expressionist architecture. This was a compromise made to combine multiple styles into the classical or simplified classical architectural design in a single building.

In Japan, buildings which incorporated Japanese styled components were popularised in the late 1920s. Construction during this period included: buildings with architecture that was harmonised with an interior theme such as, Kabuki-za (1924) and the East-Oriental Tōkyo Research Institution (1933), architecture that was considerate of the surrounding area aesthetics such as, Shiba Ward Office (1929) and Women's Pavilion (1936), international tourist hotels that appealed to a sense of exoticism related to Western foreigners such as, Biwa-Ko Hotel (1934) and Gamagori Classic Hotel (1934), were built.

In 1919 an architectural design competition was held for the design of the Imperial Diet Building (present National Diet Building), with all the winning entries being renaissance designs. Shimoda Kikutaro raised objections to these designs, by moving two petitions through the Imperial Diet. Shimoda presented a design with a Japanese-styled roof set atop of the body of the building, naming this Emperor's Crown Amalgamate Style, and actively distributed pamphlets about this cause, but was rejected by the architectural industry.

From 1906 to 1922 both Frank Lloyd Wright and Shimoda Kikutaro, who had been active together in Chicago, submitted separate design proposals for the rebuilding of the Imperial Hotel, Tokyo. Shimoda had submitted a proposal for a Japanese style roof set on a low profile masonry building before Wright had become involved in the project. Wright did not sign a memorandum with the Imperial Household for the project until March 1916, and not without protest from Kikutaro, who claimed that his design had been appropriated by Lloyd.

Architectural design competitions were held for the Kanagawa Prefectural office in 1920, and for the Nagoya Prefectural office in 1930, both winning entries had Japanese style roofs. Neither of these competitions had entry conditions which required Japonesque architectural designs, however as the Kanagawa Prefectural office was located in Yokohama there was a known association with Western foreigners, and Nagoya Prefectural office was in close proximity to Nagoya Castle, so a Japanese styling was included in the designs. Following this, the competition entry guidelines for the Japan Life Building (日本生命館, Nihon seimei kan), Dairei Memorial Kyōto Museum of Art (大礼記念京都美術館, Dairei kinen bijutsukan), and Military Hall (軍人会館, Gunjin Kaikan), had provisions for Japonesque architectural designs. The proportion of winning designs from entries with Japanese style roofs increased; three entries out of eight had Japanese style roofs in the Nagoya Prefectural office competition, and all ten entries in the Military Hall competition