Jan LETZEL

(1880 – 1925)

Czech architect who was most famous for designing the “Chamber of Commerce and Industry” in Hiroshima whose ruins are now the “A-Bomb Dome” | 1880 born in Bohemia, Austro-Hungarian Empire | ~1899 studies architecture in Pardubice | 1901 wins a scholarship to the “College of Applied Art” in Prague | 1904-05 graduates and works at a design office in Prague | 1905 works in Cairo, Egypt | 1907 arrives in Japan, works for George DE LALANDE in Yokohama | 1910 founds own office in Tôkyô | 1915 closes office due First World War | 1919-20 works as commercial attaché at the Czechoslovak embassy in Tôkyô | 1920 returns to the Czech Republic | 1922 travels to Japan again | 1923 witnesses the destruction of many of his buildings during the Great Kantō earthquake, returns deeply disappointed to Prague | 1925 died in Prague