The Imperial has seen a number of brides over a period of more than 130 years since its opening.
With both our inherited and cultivated traditions, and our refined hospitality
we can give the happy couple a once-in-a-lifetime wedding experience which is truly unique.
Here in this historic setting, we hold perfectly traditional Japanese wedding ceremonies that
have been long treasured since we first opened our doors.
It is our hope that your big day will be a wonderful one, filled with warm blessings and smiles.
The Imperial is renowned for having produced the first model in Japan of the “hotel wedding”, with a shrine, beauty salon and photography studio established inside the hotel so that every part of the wedding - from preparations to the actual ceremony and subsequent wedding reception - can be held within the same hotel.
The shrine can be described as the perfect place for a wedding, as it enshrines Izanagi and Izanami from the Taga-taisha shrine in Shiga Prefecture, the first god “couple”, who produced Japan and the gods of all creation.
The Nagashima-style wedding first inherited by The Imperial was produced during the Meiji period.
Nagashima-style weddings, in which the complex Shinto wedding program was arranged to make it easier for everyday people to hold, became popular after the wedding of Emperor Taisho and have been carefully perpetuated down to this day. The main feature and tradition of a Nagashima-style wedding is that the bride moves to the side of the bridegroom after the bride and groom face each other, performing the traditional exchange of cups of sake and offer of the sprigs of a sacred tree.
Over more than 130 years since its birth as the State Guest House of Japan, The Imperial has interwoven tradition and friendly hospitality. The Imperial also highly values the kimono as Japan’s national costume, guarding it as a traditional culture of which Japan is rightly proud, with the hope of preserving this culture into the future.
On the Imperial Floor of the Imperial Hotel, full-time guest attendants (room clerks) dressed in kimono provide various forms of assistance during one’s stay in order to make guests feel comfortable.
Likewise, since our desire is for the bride to wear a genuine kimono, we have many bridal garments available that have been classically designed with great care by first-class kimono makers, perpetuating this traditional art of Japan.
Traditional Japanese wedding experiences in beautiful kimono and hakama. It includes a ceremony and commemorative photographs.
The Imperial was created in Hibiya, Tokyo in the year 1890 as the “State Guest House of Japan” to welcome guests of honor from overseas. Japan’s premier ornaments and tableware were used within the building in order to produce a venue that would convey the wonders of Japanese culture to foreign countries. Also, many ideas that had not been found in Japanese hotels up to that point were successively implemented to provide hospitality for foreign guests far away from home, including the establishment of facilities such as a post office and a bakery (so that freshly baked bread was always available) inside the hotel.
Tel: +81-3-3504-1111 (General)
Fax: +81-3-3581-9146