Christian Youth Hall (Vories Architecture)

2022/09/16

Image: Exterior of the Christian Youth Hall (Present)

In a corner of the Sports Ground (Senior High School) on the Hiyoshi Campus, a small building known as the "Christian Youth Hall" stands quietly, surrounded by trees.

This building was constructed in 1937 (Showa 12), shortly after the opening of the Hiyoshi Campus (1934), through fundraising efforts led by Junkichi Satomi, an alumnus of the Keio University Young Men's Christian Association (hereafter referred to as the "YMCA") of the Cultural Federation, and was donated to the Juku. It has been used as a base for the YMCA from the time of its construction to the present day. The YMCA is a long-standing organization founded in 1898. Junkichi Satomi was one of the founders of the YMCA; he graduated from the Keio University department of political economy and later became the president of Daimaru, serving as an officer for various YMCA organizations and many educational institutions.

This is a small, single-story wooden building of approximately 90 square meters. The exterior walls are finished with white sprayed mortar, and the roof is made of red steel plates. A distinctive feature is its spire, topped with a simple wooden cross. Inside, there is only an auditorium and a pulpit. In October 2012 (Heisei 24), it was registered as a "Yokohama City Registered Historic Building." It is said that when Japan was occupied by the U.S. military after the war, the military used it as a chapel.

Despite its small size, the designer was William Merrell Vories. He was an American-born missionary, businessman, and architect. He designed many buildings from the Taisho to the Showa eras, ranging from churches and schools to residences and offices, and is a well-known figure in Western-style architecture in Japan. Many of his works still remain today, particularly in the Kansai region, and many of the buildings Vories worked on have become Registered Tangible Cultural Properties or Important Cultural Properties. He also imported Mentholatum ointment, founded what is now the Omi Brotherhood Group, established hospitals and schools, and was actively involved in welfare and educational activities, engaging in a wide variety of pursuits. He became a naturalized Japanese citizen, changed his name to Merrell Vories Hitotsuyanagi, remained in Japan during the war, and spent the rest of his life there.

This is the only Vories building owned by Keio University.

When planning the building, Junkichi Satomi intended to install a "bell" and went to the trouble of having one manufactured and gifted to Hiyoshi. Due in part to the influence of the war, the bell was never displayed and was eventually discovered 50 years later in 1989. As it was structurally difficult to attach to the building, the bell is now installed in a belfry built with donations from alumni on the grounds of the YMCA Tozanso International Youth Center in Gotemba. Although the Christian Youth Hall is a small building, establishing such a meeting place within a non-missionary university like Keio must have been a long-held dream of the YMCA founders. It is a building that serves as a precious historical remains, conveying the history of the Hiyoshi Campus to the present day.

(Hiroshi Watanabe, Office of Facilities and Property Management)