100 Years Since the Construction of the Phantasmal Gate; "Maboroshi no Mon"

If you slip through the arched passageway of the East Research Building on Mita Campus and follow the cobbled path left up the verdant slope, the pillars of the former main gate, Maboroshi no Mon, greet you halfway. These pillars were moved to their current location with the construction of the East Research Building in 2000.

Until then, Maboroshi no Mon faced Mita Dōri Avenue and had long kept a careful watch over the history of Keio University as the east gate of Mita Campus. It was in the summer of 1913 when Keio University completed construction on its granite pillars and wrought-iron gate to replace the original wooden Kuro-mon gate of the former Shimabara Domain estate, now Mita Campus, where Yukichi Fukuzawa had chosen to move his school some 40 years earlier.

The term "Maboroshi no Mon," meaning "phantasmal gate," comes from lyrics of a 1933 college song of the same name: "We pass through the phantasmal gate to stand upon the hill of wisdom" (Lyrics: Daigaku Horiguchi, Composition: Kosaku Yamada). Though there is no definitive theory, one legend has it that this name was given to the gate for its lack of a sign indicating the university. Even after the current Main Gate to Mita Campus was built on Japan National Route 1 in commemoration of Keio's 100th anniversary, the endearing appellation "Maboroshi no Mon" stuck with the former main gate.

Just in front of its pillars are umadome-ishi, large stones used by members of the former Shimabara Domain to tie up their horses, which were moved together with Maboroshi no Mon to their current location.