BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Embassy of Japan, Japan Information and Cultural Center

DC -- Embassy of Japan, Japan Information and Cultural Center:

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Description of Pictures: Part of Passport DC (Around the World) Open House 2011:
Come to the Old Ambassador's Residence and experience different aspects of Japanese culture. Japan is known for a culture rooted in traditions and rituals kabuki, tea ceremonies, and Budō (martial arts). From Noh Theater to Karaoke, Japanese people celebrate and honor their arts and traditions. The Embassy of Japan is pleased to be sharing their history and culture.
Ichiro Fujisaki, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to the United States of America, greeted visitors at the door.

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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[1] EMBJAP_110514_005.JPG	[2] EMBJAP_110514_013.JPG	[3] EMBJAP_110514_018.JPG
[4] EMBJAP_110514_021.JPG	[5] EMBJAP_110514_023.JPG	[6] EMBJAP_110514_025.JPG
[7] EMBJAP_110514_027.JPG	[8] EMBJAP_110514_031.JPG	[9] EMBJAP_110514_033.JPG
[10] EMBJAP_110514_039.JPG	[11] EMBJAP_110514_042.JPG	[12] EMBJAP_110514_044.JPG
[13] EMBJAP_110514_047.JPG	[14] EMBJAP_110514_050.JPG	[15] EMBJAP_110514_061.JPG
[16] EMBJAP_110514_066.JPG	[17] EMBJAP_110514_077.JPG	[18] EMBJAP_110514_083.JPG
[19] EMBJAP_110514_091.JPG	[20] EMBJAP_110514_094.JPG	[21] EMBJAP_110514_097.JPG
[22] EMBJAP_110514_105.JPG	[23] EMBJAP_110514_107.JPG	[24] EMBJAP_110514_115.JPG
[25] EMBJAP_110514_118.JPG	[26] EMBJAP_110514_120.JPG	[27] EMBJAP_110514_125.JPG
[28] EMBJAP_110514_127.JPG	[29] EMBJAP_110514_129.JPG

Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. EMBJAP_110514_013.JPG: Ichiro Fujisaki, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to the United States of America, greeted visitors at the door.
2. EMBJAP_110514_021.JPG: Ichiro Fujisaki, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to the United States of America.
3. EMBJAP_110514_091.JPG: Demonstrating robotic advances in Japan
Wikipedia Description: Embassy of Japan in Washington, D.C.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Embassy of Japan in Washington, D.C. (在アメリカ合衆国日本国大使館, Zai Amerika Gasshūkoku Nihonkoku Taishikan) is the diplomatic mission of Japan to the United States. It is located at 2520 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, D.C., in the Embassy Row neighborhood. In addition to serving as Japan's diplomatic mission in the United States, the embassy provides Japanese consular services to residents of the District of Columbia, Virginia, and Maryland. ...

About the building

The embassy was designed by the U.S. firm of Delano & Aldrich (one of whose principals was William Adams Delano, a distant relative of President Franklin D. Roosevelt). Emperor Hirohito allegedly approved the design personally. The United States Commission of Fine Arts approved the design of the building on September 16, 1930. Erected in 1931, the building is in the Georgian Revival architectural style, with subtle elements of Japanese architecture.

As originally designed, the embassy consisted of the ambassador's residence, two chancery buildings with strong Japanese architectural influence, a tea house, and tennis, gym, and other recreational facilities. The embassy features a cobblestone courtyard and driveway in front of the building. The original embassy building is now known as the Old Ambassador's Residence, and is located at 2516 Massachusetts Avenue NW. The original embassy and the two chancery buildings are two-and-a-half stories in height, with two underground levels. The total building height is about 31 feet (9.4 m). The chancery buildings, which front onto Massachusetts Avenue NW, are about 98 feet (30 m) wide. The grounds were landscaped to complement Rock Creek Park, which abuts the rear of the embassy grounds. As of 1971, the Japanese Embassy was one of the few remaining formal estates in the city. The total cost of construction was $500,000.

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the embassy was seized by the United States government and re-purposed to house the Far Eastern Commission. The embassy was returned to Japanese control in April 1952.

In 1959, then-Ambassador Koichiro Asagai and Tatsunosuke Takasaki, a member of the House of Representatives of the National Diet, proposed creating a replica of the rock garden at Ryōan-ji at the Japanese embassy. Constructed to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the first Japanese embassy to the United States, the scaled-down garden was finished in 1960. A small teahouse named Ippakutei (the "Teahouse of 100 Years"), built in the style found at the Katsura Imperial Villa, is in back of the rock garden.

The Japanese Embassy was added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 20, 1973.

Chancery

A stark, Modernist chancery building (the offices of an embassy) was completed in 1986. The chancery was built after Congress passed the Foreign Missions Act in 1982, which made it easier for embassies in the District of Columbia to expand their chanceries. Oddly, the new law significantly delayed construction of the chancery. The federal government lagged in promulgating regulations for the approval of chanceries, which meant that the chancery had to be approved by the District of Columbia Zoning Commission instead. But by the time the matter arose before the Zoning Commission in February 1983, the city was already in a multi-year process to revise its zoning regulations. The delay imperiled the funding provided by the Japanese government for the new building. Under intense pressure from the United States Department of State as well as the Japanese and Saudi Arabian governments (both of which wanted to build new chanceries immediately), the city enacted emergency zoning regulations on April 12, 1983. Construction of the chancery was approved on June 10. It was designed by architect Robert B. Anderson of the Benham Group. The local Advisory Neighborhood Commission and the Sheridan-Kalorama Neighborhood Council applauded the design for "retaining the historical aspects" of the embassy compound. The project consolidated chancery offices from two rented buildings elsewhere in the District into a single structure on the embassy grounds.

The chancery has 250 underground parking spaces, and a tunnel from Waterside Drive lead to the underground parking garage (providing a more secure entry for important diplomats or visitors).
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Featured Folk: Some of the people here can also be seen on other pages on this site.
- Fujisaki, Ichiro appears on:
  - 2012_DC_CB_Parade_120414 DC -- Natl Cherry Blossom Festival -- Parade (2012)
  - 2012_MD_Tsunami_120317 DC Env Film Festival (2012) -- "Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom" (w/Lucy Walker) @ AFI
  - 2012_DC_4Country_120218 Natl Museum of Amer History -- Event: For Country
  - 2011_DC_Honors_111204 DC -- Kennedy Center -- Kennedy Center Honors (2011)
  - 2011_DC_Mineta_110910 Reynolds Center (NPG) -- Talk: Norman Mineta
  - 2010_DC_FenceR_100401 Reynolds Center (SAAM) -- Donor Event :Remembering the Running Fence
  - 2010_DC_CBOCR_100327 DC -- Natl Cherry Blossom Festival -- Opening Ceremony @ NBM -- Post-ceremony reception
  - 2010_DC_CBOC_100327 DC -- Natl Cherry Blossom Festival -- Opening Ceremony @ NBM
  - 2009_DC_CBOCM_090328 DC -- Natl Cherry Blossom Festival -- Opening Ceremony @ NBM -- Miscellaneous
  - 2009_DC_CBOCR_090328 DC -- Natl Cherry Blossom Festival -- Opening Ceremony @ NBM -- Post-ceremony reception
  - ...More (List all 11 pages with this person)...
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Photo Contact: [Email Bruce Guthrie].