[Special Feature: Exhibiting the History of the Juku] The Campus as an Exhibition Space from the Perspective of Architectural History

2021/05/10

When I was given the tentative title "The Campus as an Exhibition Space," it occurred to me that "campus" and "canvas" sound quite similar in Japanese. In their original languages, the etymology and pronunciation are different, but when written in katakana, the difference is slight. Perhaps we overlap them because both carry an air of sophistication somewhat removed from everyday life. Of course, architecture is three-dimensional, so it is appropriate to call it a "space" when likening it to an exhibition. However, what if we dared to perceive it like a two-dimensional canvas? The similarity lies in how both are enclosed within a frame or site, are entirely artificially shaped, and are created with permanence in mind.

A campus like a canvas. When I say that, what comes to mind is, for example, the Okadayama Campus of Kobe College in Nishinomiya City, Hyogo Prefecture. William Merrell Vories was involved from the master planning stage, and the group of school buildings, where four buildings surround a rectangular plaza, was completed in 1933. While a common taste—such as the characteristic use of tiles—runs through it, it is rich in variety, creating a microcosm cut off from the outside world. The whole was created at once as a "plane," and that state is basically maintained even today.

As a graduate of Waseda University, let me speak a little about that school as well. Within the Waseda Campus, the Old Library (now the Aizu Museum) completed in 1925 is a masterpiece. An unconventional, romantic world unfolds inside. However, this is a wonderful "point" that barely remains on campus alongside the Okuma Auditorium, and this is likely the case for most other private university campuses in the city center.

What about Mita Campus, which marks its 150th anniversary this year? It is not a totality like a "plane." Nor is it a place where only a few "points" exist. Elements with individuality stand adjacent to one another, serving the community. This creates an indescribable depth when viewed as a whole canvas. This leads us to follow the "lines." I would like to descend from the bird's-eye view and trace each individual matière.

Mita Campus began in 1871 when Keio University moved to this site, which was formerly the middle residence of the Shimabara Clan. Initially, the clan residence buildings were used, but in 1875, an unprecedented piece of architecture was born. This is the Mita Enzetsukan (Public Speaking Hall), which is currently designated as a National Important Cultural Property. In the 12th volume of Gakumon no susume (An Encouragement of Learning) published the previous year, Yukichi Fukuzawa translated the English word "speech" as "enzetsu" (public speaking), explaining it as "the method of gathering many people to state a theory and conveying one's thoughts to others on the spot." Based on the conviction running through the entirety of Gakumon no susume (An Encouragement of Learning) that learning is only meaningful when put into practice, public speaking was something that needed to be popularized in Japan.

The Mita Public Speaking Event was formed in the same year as this publication, and the Mita Enzetsukan (Public Speaking Hall) was completed the following year as a place to practice public speaking. The exterior features Japanese-style namako-kabe (plaster walls with tiled joints) because, at the time, the only construction method capable of creating high ceilings and a hall without pillars was the kura-zukuri (storehouse style) inherited from the Edo period. However, it is proof of the vitality that created a space suitable for "gathering many people to state a theory" by obtaining drawings from America and reorganizing existing techniques. It reflects the essence of Yukichi Fukuzawa, who used his education in Chinese classics from the Edo period to make imported concepts usable for the people.

The area where the Mita Enzetsukan (Public Speaking Hall) stands was called Inariyama because an Inari shrine was located there when it was a clan residence. Even now, the view is open, and it is a place where one can truly feel that Mita Campus is situated on a hill. The Mita Enzetsukan (Public Speaking Hall) was moved to this location after the Great Kanto Earthquake; it originally stood between the Old University Library and the Jukukan-kyoku (Keio Corporate Administration).

The Old University Library, which opened in 1912, is also designated as a National Important Cultural Property. Both its interior and exterior make one feel that the learning advocated by Yukichi Fukuzawa was accumulated with steady steps during the Meiji era. In 1906, as a project to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the founding of Keio University, donations were sought for the long-awaited construction of a library. The fact that the amount reached the target of 300,000 yen—equivalent to several billion yen today—demonstrates the trust cultivated in Keio University and the success of its graduates up to that point. The design was handled by the Sone Chujo Architectural Office, which had just been established in 1908. This came about because Heigoro Shoda, then Chairman of the Board of Councilors, reached out to Tatsuzo Sone. Shoda was a figure who taught at Keio University before the completion of the Mita Enzetsukan (Public Speaking Hall) and later joined Mitsubishi. He suggested to Yanosuke Iwasaki that they should buy the land in Marunouchi offered for sale by the government and turn it into an office district. He welcomed Josiah Conder, who had resigned from government employment, as an architectural advisor for Mitsubishi, and also hired Tatsuzo Sone—one of the first Japanese architects to study under Conder—to create the streetscape known as "Iccho London" (A Block of London). Sone and his colleagues met expectations, completing a library that was not only a robust brick structure but also gorgeous and full of variety. Architecture that allows a sense of permanence to emerge from individual familiarity stands at the cutting edge of the era, moving from state-led to private-sector initiatives, and from Meiji to Taisho.

Keio University has deep ties with architects. Replacing the master carpenters of the Edo period, the university has allowed architects of each era to demonstrate their skills by designing self-portraits suitable for the client using new technologies and designs. The first of these was the Sone Chujo Architectural Office. Under Tatsuzo Sone and Seiichiro Chujo, who was 16 years his junior, talented young architects flourished, producing many high-quality private buildings and becoming the largest architectural design firm in Japan before World War II. Keio University gave the firm early fame through the Old University Library and commissioned various designs thereafter.

The current Jukukan-kyoku (Keio Corporate Administration), which stands opposite the Old University Library, was completed in 1926 based on a design by the Sone Chujo Architectural Office. One can see an awareness of the relationship with the Old University Library, such as the double arches at the top of the entrance and the Gothic-style buttress-like elements protruding from the walls. A major difference is the reinforced concrete construction, which makes the area inside the entrance spacious and the windows surprisingly large when viewed from the inside. The ochre-colored tiles covering the exterior walls also have individual color variations when viewed up close, which contributes to the depth when seen from a distance. While inheriting the texture of brick, it added a different color to the campus, which would be passed down in later years.

Even though it was designed by the same Sone Chujo Architectural Office, the First School Building completed in 1937 has a different charm from the Jukukan-kyoku (Keio Corporate Administration), which featured decorations reminiscent of past styles on a reinforced concrete structure. The exterior, which lacks any notable ornamentation, gives an impression of simplicity and fortitude. Inside, the three-story atrium with a switchback staircase and the large classrooms without pillars are breathtaking. Such power does not come from physical form, but from the space created by the reinforced concrete columns and beams that serve as the structure. It is like a functional and spacious factory. Yet, one also notices details similar to the handling of styles, such as brown tiles running only along the very bottom of the walls, with subtle curves where they meet the floor. The use of pale ochre tiles for the exterior walls and the addition of pilasters were likely because they did not want to make it a presence disconnected from the Jukukan-kyoku (Keio Corporate Administration). It is so long and large that one hardly notices its symmetrical shape facing the courtyard with the Ginkgo Tree in the Quad, yet it is not overbearing. This is because it has become part of the campus landscape through a balance of simplified, abstracted styles and considerations such as the tiling.

In the year of its completion, Tatsuzo Sone passed away, and the Sone Chujo Architectural Office, which had lost Seiichiro Chujo the previous year, ceased its activities. The Second Sino-Japanese War began, and thereafter, reinforced concrete buildings could no longer be built. It stands at a turning point in history.

Following the Sone Chujo Architectural Office, the architect who could be called Keio University's architect is Yoshiro Taniguchi. The relationship began with the Keio Yochisha Elementary School, completed in 1937 and still in use today. Tomoo Maki, who was then serving as a Keio University Executive Director, commissioned the design of the school building. Taniguchi was still in his 20s and had only worked on the hydraulic laboratory at Tokyo Institute of Technology, where he served as an assistant professor, and a few houses. However, rather than inheriting the traditional way a school building should be, Taniguchi rethought it from scratch and designed what he believed was good. This is the approach called Modernism. This would be used extensively on Mita Campus after World War II.

In 1949, Building 5, Building 4, and the Student Hall were completed in wood. For these, Taniguchi was honored as the first recipient of the Architectural Institute of Japan Prize (Architectural Design), the most prestigious award for an architect. On the east and west walls of the Student Hall was the mural "Democracy" by Genichiro Inokuma, which has now been moved to the cafeteria in the West School Building. Such collaboration with artists leads to the "Noguchi Room" currently in the South Building. This is a relocated part of the reinforced concrete Second Faculty Office Building completed in 1951. Through both wooden and reinforced concrete school buildings, Taniguchi gave Mita Campus a fresh consistency by using the design motif of continuous narrow vertical windows.

The West School Building, whose left side was built in 1959 and the whole completed in 1962, also stands in an era when brick colors disappeared. Until the start of construction, a red brick wall towered over the left-hand section. This was the remains of the Public Hall, completed in 1915 with a design by the Sone Chujo Architectural Office, which had burned down in the 1945 air raids. Initially, repairing and using it was considered, but in the end, it was replaced with something entirely new.

In place of the 2,000-seat Public Hall, which was one of the largest in pre-war Japan, sits the 800-person classroom (now the West School Building Hall), but it is difficult to realize that this building contains such a large space. This is because the right-hand section was built on the site where Yoshiro Taniguchi's Student Hall was relocated to the current position of the North Building, and both have the same exterior appearance. The design was handled by the Mitsubishi Estate Design Department (now Mitsubishi Jisho Design), a move that paralleled the replacement of the red brick district of Marunouchi, known as "Iccho London," with post-war buildings.

The way it exposes its fair-faced concrete structure and contains various spaces appears very attractive today. Why is that? It is because of the refreshing quality of a top-tier designer who led post-war urban development, planning the whole scientifically and designing every detail. Since there weren't a wide variety of ready-made products like there are today, the materials themselves—such as steel and wood—are utilized. Because it does not strive for "university-likeness" or "auditorium-likeness" as in the pre-war or current eras, it can withstand the passage of time. While it may not receive much attention, I want to emphasize that, along with the First School Building, it is a precious piece of architecture that speaks of this era.

The Faculty Office Building completed in 1969 was also designed by Mitsubishi Estate and others. Although it was during the same peak period of Modernism and rapid economic growth, one can see that a certain gentleness had been added by this time. Symbolic of this is the revival of "brick." It is clear that the combination of brick-colored exterior and white-painted columns and beams was intended to harmonize with the Old University Library. The large planters lined up in front also suggest a trend toward consideration for the existing environment. At the same time, factory-produced precast concrete is used for these and the building's columns and beams. The aesthetic of industrialization through repetition remains alive and well.

In a dialogue with Fumihiko Maki, Yoshio Taniguchi—the world-renowned architect who designed MoMA and the Gallery of Horyuji Treasures at the Tokyo National Museum—humorously remarked, "My father designed 26 buildings for Keio. I was only asked to do three (laughs)." He is the son of Yoshiro Taniguchi and studied at Keio for high school and university. Maki is also a world-famous architect and the nephew of Tomoo Maki, who commissioned Yoshiro Taniguchi to design the Keio Yochisha Elementary School that he attended (Fumihiko Maki and Yoshio Taniguchi, "The Genealogy of Keio Architecture," Mita-hyoron (official monthly journal published by Keio University Press), February 2020 issue, pp. 74–87).

Fumihiko Maki, who worked on the Hiyoshi Library and the Shonan Fujiisawa Campus (SFC), performed his first job for Keio at the Keio University Library (New Building) on Mita Campus, completed in 1981, followed by the Graduate School Building in 1985. While the exterior eliminates decoration, it is not a simple square box; the delicate design of the skin makes it difficult to determine exactly where the exterior line is. The entrance to the Keio University Library (New Building) and the external staircase of the Graduate School Building are elements that reach out toward the courtyard they face.

Regarding the adjacent Old University Library and Jukukan-kyoku (Keio Corporate Administration), he established a relationship not just by matching the color of the exterior wall tiles, but by providing new views through glass from the inside. One can see how Maki's style—which manipulates Modernist design as a membrane and aims for a space not divided into interior and exterior—is re-weaving Mita Campus.

From the architecture of Mita Campus, one can read an adjacency connected by "lines." It makes one realize that even during the period of Modernism, the era was not something disconnected. In addition to being that way when they were built, the fact that things from each era are preserved in this way—is this not something "Keio-esque"?

Mita Campus has history. This does not just mean that there are old things. "History" itself exists. It is a precious space, even on a national level, where one can truly feel the human being who continues to struggle and reinterpret. What creates the future is likely a non-linear education. Mita Campus demonstrates that important thing called history through the concrete objects of architecture.