The Classic House at Akasaka Prince was originally the Tokyo residence of the Lee family, the prince of Korean Empire.
This building was built in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, in 1930. The Lee family had ruled Korean Empire as an emperor from the end of the 14th century to 1910, when Korean Empire was annexed to Japan. The Lee family headed by then prince Lee Gin was incorporated into a member of Japan’s Imperial family and was obliged to move to Tokyo from present Seoul. This Tokyo residence was consequently built for them. After the end of the Second World War, however, the Lee family was deprived of its prestigious position following the GHQ policy. Eleven time-honored Imperial families in Japan also lost their position at the same time. The empty residence was sold to a private corporation and was renovated into a 35-room hotel named Akasaka Prince Hotel in 1955. About half of the building was destroyed when it was converted into the hotel though, the interior details were well-preserved in their original state. Thereafter in 2016, it was renovated again into a high-end mixed-use facility with a restaurant, wedding hall and banquet hall under the name of the Classic Hause at Akasaka Prince. In this connection, the last prince of the Lee family and his wife Masako, who was from the Nashimoto-no-miya family, one of the Imperial family in Japan, went back to Korea as a commoner in 1963 and died there in 1970 and 1989 respectively.
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