The Noguchi Room and the International Center

2018/03/01

Image: The Noguchi Room (Shin Banraisha). Welcoming President Chirac (1996)

Many of the buildings on the Mita Hilltop Square possess the distinct architectural characteristics of the period in which they were built. Perhaps because of this, some critics have noted a lack of unity (Mita-hyoron (official monthly journal published by Keio University Press), August/September 2017 issue). However, there was a time when a sense of architectural unity spread across Mita. This was during the 1950s, when a series of school buildings and research labs designed by Yoshiro Taniguchi—to whom Keio University entrusted its urgent post-war reconstruction—made their appearance. The Second Research Building, the last of these to remain, disappeared in 2004, and today its memory can only be glimpsed from the third-floor roof terrace of the South School Building.

The International Center, located on the first floor of the Second Research Building, was established in 1964 through the progressive dissolution of the former International Affairs Section. As Keio University's international exchanges became more active, it became one of the busiest departments by the 1980s. It was a "jack-of-all-trades" that handled all activities related to the university's international strategy: preparing research and educational systems for welcoming overseas researchers and international students, selecting scholarship recipients, securing housing, preparing immigration and residency documents, selecting outbound exchange students, supporting Keio students and faculty studying abroad, and negotiating exchange agreements with overseas universities, as well as handling entrance exams for returnees and international students. It also oversaw Japanese language and Japanese affairs education for international students (which became independent as the Center for Japanese Studies in 1990) and preparatory education for Keio students planning to study abroad. Because of this, the Second Research Building was the only place on the Mita Hilltop Square where people from different cultural backgrounds gathered—a sight that is now commonplace on every campus.

The lounge area of the Second Research Building, commonly known as the Noguchi Room (Shin Banraisha) and born from a collaboration between Yoshiro Taniguchi and sculptor Isamu Noguchi, was frequently used for informal talks and small-scale receptions with visitors from Japan and abroad. This masterpiece of modernism, which skillfully incorporated Japanese and Western elements, seemed to leave a particularly strong impression on visitors. It was common for Keio representatives to begin their conversations with first-time visitors by explaining the history of this space. The garden, featuring Isamu Noguchi's sculpture "Mu" (Nothingness), along with the green trees continuing from the adjacent Enzetsukan (Public Speaking Hall) (Inariyama), created a unique atmosphere on the Mita Hilltop Square.

(Professor Emeritus of Keio University, President of Tokyo Rissho Junior College, Norikazu Kudo)