Mita Building 5 (Second School Building)

2018/07/26

Four years after the war ended in 1945, Keio University, which had suffered immense damage, was beginning to recover. With Mita Building 5 and the Student Hall completed in 1949, and the Second Research Building containing the Noguchi Room in 1951, Mita finally began to take the form we know today.

Building 5 housed the Keio Gaigo administrative office on the first floor and the Co-op in the semi-basement. The rest were classrooms used primarily for foreign language classes. From the second floor, just as the lyrics of the song "Oka no Ue" say, "Open the window and you can see the sea," one could see Tokyo Bay in the distance. Looking down, one could see Fukuzawa Park on the site of the former Fukuzawa residence, making it a place where one could truly feel the history-steeped Juku celebrated in song.

In foreign language classes, Professor Kiyoshi Ikeda taught English using Hilton's "Goodbye, Mr. Chips," Professor Noboru Fujii taught using Pascal's "Pensées," and Professor Sekio Murata taught German using Schweitzer's "Out of My Life and Thought." In these classes, I believe one could see a fundamental approach to education that did not aim for foreign language study simply to improve language skills, but rather sought to explore the fundamentals of how to live and think as a human being.

Keio Gaigo started in 1942 with the opening of the Keio Language Institute as a school open to the outside world where many Asian languages could also be studied. The brilliance of the staff—including Professor Junzaburo Nishiwaki and Professor Fumio Kuriyagawa for English, and Professor Yoshio Sekiguchi for German—is something that cannot be seen at any university to this day. This was much later, of course, but after evening classes ended, the professors would enjoy a drink at shops on Mita Nakadori. The richness of the conversations among the various foreign language professors was a wonderful time that could not be experienced in the classroom.

Having watched over the post-war reconstruction of the Juku and supported research, education, and student life, Building 5 ended its mission and was demolished in January 1980, with the Keio University Library (New Building) built on its site. Those who studied and talked together there have now passed their 80th year. While the "Keio Sanka" sings, "The years we spent together in harmony will remain long in our hearts," Building 5 is revived within our fresh memories that will never fade.