Keeping Wright's Spirit Alive:
A Celebration of Raku Endo

Raku Endo was the son of Arata Endo, Wright’s righthand man in Japan, and the last Japanese architect to study with Frank Lloyd Wright. He was also a tireless campaigner for the preservation of Wright’s buildings in Japan, a writer, translator, music lover and friend of everyone he ever met. (More on Raku here)

The seminar celebrated all these aspects of Raku, as well as launching sales of a new Japanese-language book about the architect, Tanoshiku Tateru (Building with Joy). The featured speakers were Akiko Domoto, Governor of Chiba Prefecture, Akio Okumura, Prof. Emeritus of Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music, and Tetsuya Minamiseko, Prof. Emeritus of Kogakuin University and Vice Chairman of WAAJ.

Gov. Domoto began her career as a journalist, and was instrumental in the campaign to save Wright’s Imperial Hotel in 1967, during which she met Raku Endo. Prof. Okumura, an architect and inventor of the OM Solar system, also worked on the campaign to save the Imperial, and also lead efforts to save Wright’s Jiyu Gakuen Myonichikan. Prof. Minamiseko, an architect and historian, worked with the others on the committees to save the Imperial and Myonichikan, and headed up the editorial committee that produced the new book on Raku’s architecture.

Event supported by Shinsei Bank, Limited