75 Years with Nature at Keio Shiki Senior High School
2024/07/31
It is impossible to talk about our school without mentioning its vast grounds and natural environment. The campus, spanning over 100,000 square meters—twice the size of the Tokyo Dome—straddles the three cities of Shiki, Niiza, and Asaka. Although it is now surrounded by apartments and houses, it is surprising to hear from our alumni that the campus has become much smaller compared to the past, with comments like, "The apartment complex grounds were originally student dormitories," and "The school gate was right outside the ticket gates of Shiki Station on the Tobu Tojo Line."
On the east side, there are grounds large enough for the baseball, field hockey, soccer, rugby, and soft tennis clubs to practice simultaneously. In addition, there is a kyudo (Japanese archery) range, a judo and kendo dojo, hard-court tennis courts, a heated pool, and a training room (Koraisha) with lodging facilities. Beyond the athletic facilities, the campus also features a farm, a bamboo grove and woods, a biotope, Gulliver Pond (Kamoike), and the remains of the Nobidome Aqueduct.
Here is an anecdote unique to our school, with its vast grounds and remaining nature. One cold winter morning, a janitor reported that the stairs of the main classroom building were soiled with animal droppings. Following the trail up the stairs, we found two raccoon dogs huddled in an umbrella stand in a third-floor classroom. It seems they had wandered in, drawn by the light and warmth, because a door had been left unlocked the previous day. When we checked with the city of Shiki, they told us we would have to call in a professional handler. Instead, we worked with the janitor and resident contractors to catch them and release them into the woods on campus. We are now hoping for a "Grateful Raccoon Dog" to repay our kindness, in a twist on the old "Grateful Crane" folktale.
In 2023, our school celebrated its 75th anniversary. As part of the commemorative projects, the "Kosaikan" building was completed on December 20 of the same year. This was made possible by a fundraising campaign led by the Shikikai (the Keio Shiki Senior High School alumni association). It features a multipurpose hall with a capacity of 300, a tea ceremony room, a music room, a medium-sized classroom, a seminar room, and the school's first-ever elevator. Additionally, a mural by world-renowned artist and alumnus Enrico Isamu Oyama stretches gracefully from the stair landing at the main entrance to the building's exterior wall.
Although access to the campus was restricted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, events such as the Harvest Festival, regular concerts by the Wagner Society Male Choir and the instrumental music club, and the "Nature Observation Tour," a campus tour event led by the biology club, have already resumed. We invite you to visit our school and experience these events.
It has been 75 years since the school opened in May 1948 as Keio Agricultural Senior High School. Its establishment was based on the Keio University Junior College of Veterinary and Animal Husbandry, following a 1947 donation of land and buildings from the Toho Sangyo Research Foundation, led by businessman Yasuzaemon Matsunaga , known as the "Ogre of Electric Power." We are committed to preserving this nature-rich educational environment for the next 25 years, leading up to our 100th anniversary.
(Yoshikazu Nakajima, Administrative Director, Keio Shiki Senior High School)
*Affiliations and titles are as of the time of this publication.