Outdoor Entrance Ceremony on Mita Hilltop Square

2020/06/30

These two photographs were taken by Professor George S. Bonn (1913–2003), a visiting professor from the New York Public Library who was assigned to the Faculty of Letters Department of Library Science (at the time) from academic year 1954 to 1955. While the exact dates of when Professor Bonn arrived in Japan and when he returned home are unknown, these photos were likely taken at the entrance ceremony held on April 11, 1955.

Looking at the photo above, you can see students lined up facing the First School Building and the Ginkgo Tree in the Quad. The white two-story building on the left is the Third Research Building, and the brick Public Hall can be seen behind it. The Public Hall was built in 1915, and unicorn statues were installed on the third-floor balcony during repairs following the Great Kanto Earthquake. It was destroyed by fire in the 1945 air raids and demolished in 1957. In the other photo, the Enzetsukan (Public Speaking Hall) is slightly visible among the trees behind the Third Research Building. The Third Research Building was designed by Yoshiro Taniguchi and completed in 1952.

There were 2,578 enrollees that year. While the presence of female students can be confirmed in the photos, there are no records of exactly how many there were. However, since records show that 76 of the 1,967 graduates from the previous year were women, the number of female enrollees was likely just under a hundred.

After returning to the United States, Professor Bonn, who took these photos, worked again at the New York Public Library. Later, he taught at the library schools of the University of Hawaii and the University of Delhi in India, showing his international involvement in library and information science education. He visited Japan several times thereafter and maintained a high interest in Japanese culture, collecting ukiyo-e prints from the late Edo and Meiji periods. His collection was donated to the Keio University Media Center and can be viewed online.

The 2020 entrance ceremony has been postponed due to the effects of the new coronavirus. It is still considered difficult to hold an entrance ceremony in the conventional manner. These photos of the entrance ceremony in the Mita Quad from an era when resources were likely still scarce after the war strengthen the feeling that we must seek new ways to celebrate the enrollment of our students.