First Research Building

2020/12/24

Image: Taken in Showa 42 (1967). The Third School Building has been demolished, and the western portion of the New Research Building is rising. The Fifth Research Building, built in January 1965, can be seen on the roof of the First School Building.

The atmosphere of the Mita Hilltop Square in those days was well-suited to the description "Oka no Ue". The area where the East Building now stands was once a gently sloping cobblestone path leading up toward the Old Library with its soaring octagonal tower. Just before reaching the top of the slope, passing several hitching stones embedded on the far left, stood the "Maboroshi no Mon", which has now been moved to a peculiar location. The original gateposts stood around the area where one now climbs the stairs of the East Building and passes through the arch, or slightly above that. Looking back from the top of the stairs in front of the Old Library, the view is now completely obstructed, but on clear days in the past, one could see the white shimmering sea as a streak in the southeast distance.

The "First Research Building" was about half the size of the current Research Building, located on its eastern side. Its shape was a three-story reinforced concrete white building forming a U-shape with two wings projecting toward the First School Building. A bust of Fukuzawa was installed in the center of the recessed area. According to records, this building was constructed in Taisho 9 as a preparatory school building. After a winding history—including being used as a school building for affiliated schools such as the Chutobu Junior High School within the Keio University that suffered heavy damage during air raids at the end of World War II—it was renovated in Showa 26 and converted into the First Research Building. In the right wing facing away from the First School Building, there was a study room for graduate students directly in front of the entrance, with the reception and administrative offices located further back to the left.

During my time as a graduate student, I mainly used the study room and the reference room, and there was one face I saw almost every day in the study room. In April 1967, I was appointed as an assistant and given a room on the second floor for the first time. Other rooms might have been different, but the room I was assigned, though called a research office, was a cluttered space no better than a storeroom. The desks lined up by the relatively bright windows, where light came through frosted glass on the south side, were already occupied by senior associate professors and full-time lecturers. As a newcomer, I had no choice but to use an empty desk left near the wall by the entrance, which required lighting even during the day. There were many other small rooms in the building, but I remember there being relatively little foot traffic. The following year, in 1968, the western half of the New Research Building was completed, and I moved to Room 425. Coincidentally, my roommate there was the regular of the graduate study room, my senior Akihisa Uetake, who is now a Professor Emeritus.

(Kazuyoshi Hotta, Professor Emeritus, Keio University)