Chapter 1 Beginnings

1923

→

1944

Section 3. Expansion to Tokyo

2. Building No. 1 and the Tokyo Office Open

The Hibiya Daibiru Building, which appeared in the heart of Tokyo, was a reinforced concrete structure with eight above-ground floors, one underground floor, and an eave height of 31 m, with a total floor area of 11,042 m2. For the internal design of the building, a center core system that concentrated elevators, staircases, boiler rooms, lavatories, and other utilities in the center of the building was adopted.

  • Building No. 1 at the time of its completion

The first-floor exterior was clad with Furuma stone around the main entrance and artificial blocks on the other three façades. The second story and above were clad with Daibiru’s distinctive dark brown grooved brick tiles for an early modern Romanesque look.

A bronze goddess statue and hero statue by Teizo Okuni were positioned by the left and right walls at the first-floor entrance. The eave molding and seventh-floor windowsills were decorated with decorative animal masks and gargoyle masks made from Japanese terra cotta to produce an artistic atmosphere, creating a prestigious look much like that of the Osaka Building.

The building’s internal facilities underwent well-conceived upgrades as a result of our experience with the Osaka Building, making it suitable for a first-class location in the nation’s capital.

Hibiya Daibiru Building No. 1 opened on August 1, 1927, at the height of the Showa Financial Crisis, a time of difficult economic conditions. O.S.K. Lines was the main tenant, but other Osaka-based companies also moved into the building, including The Sumitomo Bank, Osaka Marine & Fire Insurance Co., Ltd. (now Mitsui Sumitomo Marine & Fire Insurance Co., Ltd.), Nippon Electric Power, and Osaka Ceramics. The building also enjoyed some unique tenants, including the publisher Bungeishunju Ltd. and the Rainbow Grill. As a result, the building saw a constant stream of people involved in the literary world, politics, business, and mass media coming and going.

The Tokyo Office opened at the same time as Hibiya Daibiru Building No. 1.

The building was nicknamed the “Omen Building” (meaning “Animal/Gargoyle Mask Building”) by Tokyoites prior to being rebuilt in 1986.