TIME TRAVEL PHOTO GALLERY

Keio University School of Medicine was established in 1917, with Dr. Shibasaburo Kitasato as its first Dean. Preliminary classes began in Mita in April. By June, land in Shinanomachi was acquired to construct the medical school and hospital, eventually developing into the current Shinanomachi Campus.

The Vast, Empty Lot before the Establishment of School of Medicine

In 2017, the Keio University University School of Medicine celebrated its 100th anniversary. In the Shinanomachi area, which has changed dramatically over the past century, commemorative signs were displayed at the hospital's main entrance, on the campus grounds, and along Gaien Higashi-dori Street. This milestone year provided an opportunity to reflect on “the past 100 years and the next 100 years.”

Exterior of the Shinanomachi Campus

At the hospital's founding, the main operating room served surgery and OB/GYN, while other specialties used separate outpatient rooms. Wartime fuel shortages necessitated using warming stoves for heat during winter surgeries. Following the building's destruction in the war, operating rooms were consolidated into the current centralized system.

The surgery Operating Room at the Time of the Hospital's Founding

Currently called the Central Operating Department, it provides advanced medical care. They use cluster medical teams across departments for low-invasive surgery. Advanced equipment includes a hybrid operating room (2014) and the da Vinci Xi surgical robot (2016). With over 14,000 inpatient and outpatient surgeries combined, they have a top-class record nationwide.

The Operating Room Today

The Pharmacognosy Laboratory, established in September 1919, was the predecessor of the current Pharmacology Department. Initially, there were only two staff members, but the kind guidance of the first professor, Katsuma Abe, and the ability for students without specialized fundamental medical knowledge to complete thesis papers led to a rapid increase in applicants. The research scope was very broad, making it one of the most active departments in Japan in terms of both quantity and quality.

The Pharmacology Laboratory at the Time of the School's Opening

The current Pharmacology lab features an open space fostering communication. Faculty expertise spans pharmacology, physics, engineering, chemistry, and biology. They are actively introducing computer science and imaging systems to create the new field of "complex systems pharmacology." They also focus on education and international exchange, including accepting many international students.

The Current Department of Pharmacology

At that time, the dental treatment room was equipped with seven dental chairs with Ritter engines, and treatments were performed with patients in a seated position. When the department was first established, it consisted of a five-person team, including Professor Mitsuru Okada.

The Dental Outpatient Treatment Room at the Time of the Hospital's Founding

Currently, the dental division, which provides dental treatment for patients with systemic diseases, and the oral surgery division, which handles conditions such as tumors, jaw deformities, and mucosal diseases, work in close collaboration to provide patient care. Although the layout of the treatment room remains unchanged, its technology and scope of practice continue to expand, including the shift from seated to supine treatment positions.

The Current Oral surgery Outpatient Treatment Room

The Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology began patient examination at the new Keio University Hospital outpatient clinic in July 1920, following the appointment of Masamichi Kawazoe as the first professor in 1919. The examination room was simple, with just a bed and a desk. Doctors manually recorded findings using a pen and blotting paper, while patients in kimonos waited outside the curtain. The nurse's distinctive "anpan hat" is noted as a feature of the era.

The Obstetrics and Gynecology Outpatient Examination Room at the Time of the Hospital's Founding

Modern obstetrics and gynecology consultation rooms are categorized by function to cover all events in a woman's life cycle, from gynecological oncology to women's medicine. These rooms incorporate advanced, privacy-conscious technology. The image shows an obstetrics ultrasound room performing 4D (real-time 3D) fetal ultrasound diagnosis, a technology absent at the facility's founding. Laptop computers have replaced pens and ink, and monitors are installed for patients and families.

The Modern Obstetrics and Gynecology Examination Room

Completion of the School Building for Preventive Medicine. This research facility for preventive medicine was completed with a donation from the Rockefeller Foundation. It included over 10 laboratories, an auditorium, a specimen room, a library, and a professor's office. While the main hospital building was completely destroyed by war damage, this building was spared and was temporarily used as a hospital facility before being utilized as a research facility.

Completion of Building for Preventive Medicine and Public Health

Today, the building retains its original exterior and is used for laboratories, School of Medicine classes, and other purposes. Hexagonal marks can be found on the driveway approaches on both sides of the entrance. These are the scars left by incendiary bombs that directly hit the building during the Great Tokyo Air Raid of May 1945.

The Modern Building for Preventive Medicine and Public Health

Hospital Annex Completed in 1932, it housed patient rooms with a total of 219 beds, in addition to a lecture hall, an X-ray room, laboratories, and clinical operating rooms. While 60 percent of the School of Medicine and hospital facilities were lost in the May 1945 air raids, the annex, to which key clinical functions had been relocated, escaped the damage and became the center of the hospital's operations after the war.

Hospital Annex

Building 3 (South Wing) was completed on August 1, 2012, on the former site of the hospital annex. It provides comprehensive advanced medical care and preventive medicine, including wards, an Oncology Center for cancer/rheumatism, an Immune Integrated Medical Center, and a new Preventive Medicine Center with a "Ningen Dock" (comprehensive medical check-up) area. This facility addresses the challenge of extending "healthy life expectancy."

Building 3 (South Wing)

The Kitasato Memorial Medical Library was established in 1937 to honor the legacy of Dr. Shibasaburo Kitasato, the first Dean of the School of Medicine. Previously, the department only had small libraries/archives. It was formally donated to Keio University in 1944. The library was open to non-university medical professionals and was known for offering nighttime and Sunday hours early on. (Approx. 30,000 volumes held)

Kitasato Memorial Medical Library Exterior

Without altering its modern Renaissance-style exterior, the library operates as one of Japan's leading specialized libraries for medical sciences and related fields. It maintains an extensive collection and provides access to a wide range of electronic resources, while also focusing on information literacy education, including workshops on utilizing electronic resources. (Collection: approx. 413,000 volumes)

Kitasato Memorial Medical Library Exterior

Kitasato Memorial Medical Library First-Floor Lobby A bronze statue of Dr. Shibasaburo Kitasato was installed in the first-floor lobby of Kitasato Memorial Medical Library, directly facing the entrance.

Kitasato Memorial Medical Library First-Floor Lobby

An entrance to the library was added to the first-floor lobby, and the bronze statue of Dr. Shibasaburo Kitasato, slightly relocated, still stands there today. For eighty years, it has watched over the School of Medicine students using the library.

Kitasato Memorial Medical Library First-Floor Lobby

A conference room was established on the second floor of Kitasato Memorial Medical Library. This historic building was designed by Junken Wada in the Renaissance Revival style, the features of which are evident in the lighting and furnishings.

Kitasato Memorial Medical Library Second Floor Conference Room

Now known as Conference Room 1, it is widely used as a venue to welcome guests and award recipients for ceremonies held in Kitasato Hall, as well as a meeting place. The walls are adorned with paintings and photographs of the successive deans of School of Medicine, offering a tangible sense of the school's long history.

Conference Room 1

With 153 beds, it was said to be the largest wooden structure of the postwar era. Although most of the facilities on the Shinanomachi Campus were destroyed by air raids, the desire to rebuild School of Medicine and the hospital in Shinanomachi was strong. This reconstruction project was accomplished in just three years after the war, thanks to the collective efforts of School of Medicine.

Main Entrance of the Hospital (Main Hospital Building)

The hospital's main entrance (Central Building and Building No. 2). The Central Building (foreground) was completed in 1963. The new hospital building (current Building No. 2, background) was completed in 1986 as part of the 125th anniversary of Keio Gijuku's founding. This new building, 11 stories above ground and 2 below, symbolized the anniversary with its advanced medical information system. It remains a core facility of the hospital today.

Main Entrance of the Hospital (Central Building, Building 2)

After graduating from School of Medicine, Keio University University in 1955, he worked at surgery, Keio University University, and the National Tokyo Second Hospital. He currently runs the Watanabe Clinic in Taito-ku, Tokyo. At the age of 86, he remains an active clinician.

Masayuki Watanabe (second from left) working in the Keio University Hospital tuberculosis ward.

Graduating from Keio University School of Medicine in 1985, Dr. Watanabe joined the Department of Surgery, influenced by his father. He is currently a professor and head of the New Hospital Building Preparation Office at Keio University School of Medicine. He is in charge of the new hospital construction project, a core part of the medical school's 100th-anniversary initiatives, with completion targeted for March 2018. The project is currently underway with hospital staff led by Watanabe.

Masumi Watanabe (second from left) inspecting the construction site of new hospital building (Building 1) at Keio University Hospital.

Aerial view of Shinanomachi Campus (1965). University Hospital Building 1, a 5-story reinforced concrete structure with one basement level, was completed in 1965. It connects to Buildings 2, 6, and 7 via the central building. Behind the main entrance was the Nursing School, which trained nurses for over 50 years starting in 1917, and an annex ward. The site area was approximately 23,000 tsubo (approx. 76,000 sq meters).

An Aerial View of the Shinanomachi Campus (1965)

Across the road behind University Hospital Building 2 stands Building 3 (South and North Wings), connected by a walkway. Furthermore, in 2001, the Center for Integrated Medical Research was completed as a clinical research facility, and the Research Park was established. This further promoted industry-academia collaborative research and interdisciplinary studies that transcended the boundaries of clinical departments and laboratories.

An Aerial View of the Shinanomachi Campus (2015)

Clinical Training of the Time A scene from a surgery clinical lecture. At the time, classes were held in lecture halls designed so that students could look down from above to learn while observing actual clinical cases.

Clinical Training of the Time

This image shows an endoscopic simulation training session. Clinical training is conducted in small groups (6-7 students) from the 5th year through the second semester of the 6th year. This participatory clinical training allows students to deepen medical knowledge through direct patient contact and learn essential abilities like responsibility, leadership, and cooperation. Practical training using the latest simulators is also actively employed.

Current Clinical Training

Yotsuya Festival: An annual university festival at Shinanomachi Campus, held in November, separate from the Mita Festival due to differences in campus environment. Students aspiring to medicine and healthcare use their unique ideas to address various medical issues in society, making it a community-open event that stimulates society. The photo shows the Yotsuya Festival Executive Committee in 1981. (62nd Class of Medicine, Left: Teruhiko Yoshida, Chairman; Right: Hideyuki Okano)

The Yotsuya Festival Executive Committee in 1981

Yotsuya Festival will be held for the 40th time in fiscal year 2017. Past members of the Yotsuya Festival executive committee have also followed their own paths and become leading figures in Japan. (Left: Dr. Teruhiko Yoshida, Director, Fundamental Innovative Oncology Core Center (FIOC), Research Centers and Institutes, National Cancer Center Japan; Right: Dr. Hideyuki Okano, Dean, School of Medicine, Keio University University)

A photo recreating a scene from the 1981 Yotsuya Festival executive committee meeting with the original members.

A shot from the School of Medicine graduation album. A commemorative photo of a clinical training scene at the East School Building, taken by members of the clinical training group in their fifth year. (62nd graduating class of School of Medicine. Left: Michito Hirakata; Center: Seiichi Hirobe; Right: Keiichi Fukuda)

A clinical training scene at the East School Building.

The practice rooms in the East School Building are still used as classrooms today. While graduates go on to various fields, a characteristic of the Keio University School of Medicine is the deep, continuous network of connections formed during their student days. (Left: Professor Michito Hirakata, Director of the Center for Medical Education, Center: Makoto Hirobe, Deputy Director of Tokyo Metropolitan Children's Medical Center, Right: Professor Keiichi Fukuda, Internal Medicine (Cardiology))

A photo recreating the 1981 picture of the clinical training scene at the East School Building with the original members.

Hospital Entrance (Central Building and New Building). In 1986, the new university hospital building (now Building 2) was opened as part of the 125th-anniversary project of Keio University. This photo shows the building at the time of its completion ceremony. The Central Building is in the foreground, and the New Building extends behind it. A Bronze Statue of Yukichi Fukuzawa was installed at the entrance.

Hospital Entrance (Central Building and New Building)

The building retains its original structure, but automation (accounting, repeat-visit machines) is reducing wait times. A comprehensive patient consultation service is also available at the entrance, where specialized staff (nurses, pharmacists, dietitians, medical clerks) offer daily consultations to patients and their families. The statue of Yukichi Fukuzawa continues to watch over patients entering and leaving the hospital.

Hospital Entrance (Central Building and Building 2)