Former Gakushuin Elementary School Assembly Hall

One Hall, an Important Cultural Property since 1973

Former Gakushuin Elementary School Assembly Hall (旧学習院初等科正堂) stands within the grounds of Boso no Mura, at 1451 Otake, Narita City, Chiba Prefecture, listed as an Important Cultural Property on 2 June 1973. The listing is as an Important Cultural Property, not a National Treasure, and the owner is Chiba Prefecture.

The quantity is one building. The date field gives 1899, and the structure is timber, 647.7 square metres, single-storeyed.

The Agency records that it was built as an assembly hall at Yotsuya in Tokyo. It began life in the capital.

The Reading Differs from One Body to Another

One name has been given two readings.

The Agency's reading field omits the word for former, giving only the school and hall.

Narita City, by contrast, includes the word for former in its reading.

At the former Konishi residence, the name carried the word for former and the reading did not. That disagreement sits within the Agency's own record.

Here the reading itself differs between the national record and the city's.

At Ochidani Shrine, the listed name and the owner's name disagreed; at the Konishi residence, the name and its reading. This is a disagreement across two bodies.

The Year of the Move, and the Word for It, Do Not Agree

Two records differ on how the building left Tokyo.

The Agency records that in 1937, when a new hall was to be built for the crown prince's entry to the school, the old one was sold off to a village in Chiba Prefecture, now part of Narita City.

Narita City records that in 1936 it was granted to the village by the Imperial Household Ministry.

The years differ by one, and the words differ too: a sale in one account, a grant from above in the other.

At the Yatsusawa power station, owner names differed between record systems. At the Ishitani residence, the owner was written two ways.

Here both the year of the event and its character differ. Which is correct wants checking by hand.

Three Sites in Turn

Between its building and the present day the hall has been moved twice.

It stood first at the Gakushuin school in Tokyo, newly built in 1899.

It was then re-erected as the assembly hall of an elementary school in a village in Chiba Prefecture, on ground now within a junior high school.

From there it was moved to Boso no Mura, where it stands now. Narita City records that until that move it served as the junior high school's assembly hall.

Ownership passed from the school to the village and then to the prefecture. At the former Konishi residence, a company held its founding buildings throughout.

Here both owner and place changed, and the building survived. Its purpose stayed the same: an assembly hall throughout.

Visiting

The hall stands within Boso no Mura at 1451 Otake, Narita City, Chiba Prefecture.

The roofing is recorded two ways. The Agency gives slate together with ribbed copper sheet; Narita City gives natural slate.

Of the interior, Narita City records a hall at the centre with a platform behind it, raised above the floor of the hall.

A semicircular stair stands before the platform, waiting rooms lie east and west of the hall, an open veranda with a handrail runs around the outside, and stone steps stand at the centre of the south side.

The Agency's assessment reads that the hall is single-storeyed timber with little ornament and a plain design, and that its manner is sound and quiet in feeling. Narita City records it as open to the public, following the opening hours of Boso no Mura. Check before travelling.