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.