Fukuzawa Yukichi Memorial Keio History Museum Vol. 1: Creating a Model of Mita Campus from 100 Years Ago

2021/02/16

In May of this year, the Fukuzawa Yukichi Memorial Keio History Museum, which situates Fukuzawa Yukichi and Keio University within modern history, will open in Mita. Positioned alongside the Keio Museum Commons (KeMCo) on Mita-dori as "twin exhibition facilities" (as noted in the President's New Year's Address), the staff of the Fukuzawa Memorial Center for Modern Japanese Studies, who are currently working on the opening, will introduce the highlights of this museum in a five-part series.

The Fukuzawa Yukichi Memorial Keio History Museum will feature a model recreating the Keio University Mita Campus as it appeared around 1923, approximately 100 years ago. The model, built at a 1/285 scale on a 1.2-meter square base, covers an area including the Mita Hilltop Square, the Yochisha Elementary School (located in the western lowlands where the Co-op is now), and the Futsubu School (located where the Chutobu Junior High School is today). Representative buildings of that era include the brick Jukukan-kyoku (Keio Corporate Administration) designed by Fujimoto Sukichi, a relative of Fukuzawa and a student of Josiah Conder; the Old University Library, which still stands today; the Public Hall, used for ceremonies like entrance ceremonies and lectures by luminaries such as Albert Einstein; and the University Preparatory School building, which was a rare reinforced concrete structure for its time (both designed by Sone Chujo Architectural Office and introduced in the December 2020 issue of Mita-hyoron, "Post-war Keio in Photographs"). Most other buildings were wooden. Furthermore, the Enzetsukan (Public Speaking Hall), which now stands quietly on Inari-yama, was then located just up the stairs from the main gate (now the East Gate), sandwiched between the Old University Library and the Jukukan-kyoku (Keio Corporate Administration). Since 1923, Mita Campus has undergone many transformations due to the Great Kanto Earthquake, the cutting of roads on the south side of the campus, and air raids, making the recreation a difficult task.

The significance of the Mita Campus model produced for this exhibition lies in its role as a medium for passing down the "tangible aspects" of Keio University history.

Within Keio, much attention is paid to the "intangible aspects" of Keio University, such as Fukuzawa Yukichi's philosophy and Keio students culture, and research and preservation in these areas are flourishing. However, for most people associated with the Juku, there are few opportunities to feel the historical continuity of the "tangible aspects," such as the buildings and the state of the campus. Therefore, by embodying the buildings in the form of a model, we aimed to allow visitors to three-dimensionally experience the atmosphere of old Mita and to guide multifaceted interest in the history of the Juku. The year 1923, before the earthquake, was chosen as the model period because it was a time when buildings that still exist today, such as the Enzetsukan (Public Speaking Hall) and the Old University Library, coexisted with buildings from Fukuzawa's lifetime that no longer exist. This allows for a sense of historical connection from the mid-Meiji period to the present, and a certain amount of documentation was available for this era.

Additionally, while this model assists in understanding the exhibition content, it also serves to convey the appearance of a private school campus that differed from the government-run universities of the same era—including the prevalence of wooden architecture, the coexistence of primary, secondary, and vocational education, and the resulting close proximity between faculty and Keio students. I would like to position this model production as an attempt to shed light on architecture as one aspect of educational history.

Regarding the shapes, dimensions, and coloring of the buildings, which are crucial in model making, many were difficult to identify.

First, for shapes and dimensions, we referred to drawings, photographs, and video materials held by the Fukuzawa Memorial Center for Modern Japanese Studies and the Office of Facilities and Property Management. While some universities have lost the drawings of their old school buildings, Keio University has a relatively large number of drawings remaining. However, there are not many elevation drawings, and the window positions shown on floor plans were often inaccurate, making photographs essential for recreating the window arrangements on the back of buildings and the shapes of doors.

Even for the old Jukukan-kyoku (Keio Corporate Administration), which was a symbol of Mita during Fukuzawa's lifetime, there were no proper floor plans, let alone elevation drawings. The appearance of the back side was identified through a photograph published in the "Mita Shimbun" shown on the left page. We also searched for clues in casual photographs, such as estimating the details of the window arrangement on the south side of the Commercial and Industrial School building (which was near the current South School Building) by enlarging aerial photographs. For areas where no photographs existed and the appearance was unknown, we drew elevation drawings by inferring from floor plans and other available information. For parts that were impossible to recreate on our own, Mr. Hiroshi Watanabe of the Office of Facilities and Property Management's construction department provided the drawings. In particular, the restoration drawings for the Fukuzawa Residence (located at Fukuzawa Park in the southeast corner of the campus), which underwent repeated additions and renovations, were a masterpiece by Mr. Watanabe. By organizing multiple drawings, including those from the renovation by Fukuzawa's favorite carpenter, Daigoro Kanasugi, I am confident we were able to get as close as possible to its appearance at the time.

Coloring was similarly difficult. For the color of the walls, postcards and sketches by Yochisha, Futsubu School, and Commercial and Industrial School students from the Taisho and Showa eras were important materials. For decorative parts where the material could not be determined, we made decisions by referring to similar buildings of the same era.

While there were such hardships, the process of researching photographs and drawings led to the discovery of interesting materials, such as a rejected design proposal for the "Maboroshi no Mon" (the former main gate) and a simple floor plan showing the use of each room in the old Jukukan-kyoku (Keio Corporate Administration). Furthermore, by collecting and comparing many photographs, we found many subtle differences in the buildings across different years. I believe such trivial information can serve as important clues for historically verifying the use and transition of campus space in the future.

In this model, we have recreated details down to the number of horizontal boards on the exterior walls and the color of the window frames as far as technically possible. The positions of structures such as utility poles, trees, cobblestones, and outdoor lights are also based on historical research as much as possible. We have also recreated features that are now known only to a few, such as the slope extending from the Fukuzawa Residence toward Mita-dori, the waterway extending from Inari-yama to the bottom of the hill, and the Ginkgo Tree in the Quad that still remains. Additionally, we included the daphne (jinchoge) that appears in Hideo Yoshino's poem "When the daphne blooms in front of the library / Both love and exams were painful," and the trumpet vine (ryoshoka/nozen-kazura) mentioned in Haruo Sato's poem "Wine, Song, Tobacco, and Women," even though their flowering seasons differ. Since the model is precisely crafted down to details not visible from the front, please feel free to reach around and take photos from behind the display case.

Another way to enjoy the exhibit is to learn about the unexpected architectural history of Keio University through the captions. Some of the recreated buildings were destined to be moved from the Mita Hilltop Square to other campus sites within the Juku (such as Chutobu or Keio Senior High School). It seems that construction costs were saved by reusing school buildings as the campus expanded. In particular, relocations during the post-war reconstruction period are thought to have played an important role in supporting the reorganization of affiliated schools amidst financial pressure. In the "Album of Keio University School Buildings, etc." (Volume 3) held by the Mita Media Center (Keio University Library), there is a phrase that symbolizes the use of buildings at the Juku, which were often moved or repurposed: "Japanese houses are movable property."

As an organizer of the museum, I would be delighted if visitors did not just look at this model, but also took a walk through the campus after seeing the exhibition to feel the differences and similarities with the past. I hope you enjoy the pleasure of finding places where you can imagine the appearance of yesteryear, such as the remnants of the path leading to the aforementioned Fukuzawa Residence. Also, Mita was a place where Keio students of a wide range of ages, from Yochisha students to university students, studied; it would be interesting to imagine their lives as well.

There are still several buildings for which details remain unknown due to a lack of materials, and regarding the topography of Mita Hill, the state of the south side in particular can only be confirmed through aerial photographs. If you have information regarding the buildings or topography, or materials such as photographs, please let us know. We would like to use such valuable information as a reference for future revisions.

Fukuzawa Yukichi Memorial Keio History Museum HP

Fukuzawa Yukichi Memorial Keio History Museum – A history museum for considering modern civilization through the life of Fukuzawa Yukichi and the 160-year history of Keio University