What katarōka means
A katarōka plan has rooms along only one side of a corridor, with the outer wall and windows on the other side. Because the rooms stand in a single row, each faces the outside and can take light and air from both the corridor and the exterior.
From the Meiji era it was widely used for school classroom blocks, often with classrooms to the south and the corridor to the north, and also for dormitories, company housing and hospitals. The counterpart is the central corridor, with rooms on both sides; it fits more rooms into the same building width but tends to leave the corridor dark.
Reading the records and the building
Records describe single-loaded plans. The museum and training buildings of the Awashima Maritime Memorial Hall in Mitoyo, Kagawa, are both recorded as former classroom blocks of the Awashima Seamen's School with katarōka plans. At Yamamoto Rock Machine in Shobara, Hiroshima, the family dormitory has a single-loaded corridor with Japanese-style rooms on the first and second floors, and the single workers' dormitory runs a corridor along its west side with ten-mat rooms to the east, both corridor and rooms having wide openings.
On site, look for a continuous row of windows along one long side with the corridor behind. Buildings with evenly spaced large windows on one face only are often single-loaded classroom blocks or dormitories.
References
- 粟島海洋記念館資料館（旧粟島海員学校教室）｜国指定文化財等データベース（文化庁）
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00001141
- 粟島海洋記念館研修棟（旧粟島海員学校教室）｜国指定文化財等データベース（文化庁）
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00001142
- ヤマモトロックマシン（旧山本鉄工所）自治寮家族棟｜文化遺産オンライン
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/221057
- ヤマモトロックマシン（旧山本鉄工所）自治寮独身棟｜文化遺産オンライン
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/243748
Last verified: 2026.09.26