The Central Bay of a Normal School, Kept When the Rest Came Down
The Northern Education Archive Room of Hokkaido University of Education Hakodate Campus, formerly Hakodate Normal School (北海道教育大学函館校北方教育資料室（旧函館師範学校）), is a two-storey wooden building of 1914 at 1-2 Hachiman-cho, Hakodate, added to Japan's list of Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in 2000.
What stands today is a fragment. The original main building of Hakodate Normal School was long, and when new campus buildings went up in the 1960s the whole of it was scheduled for demolition. The central bay was cut free, moved, and kept. That is the piece you see: 320 square metres of floor area, timber frame, tiled roof, horizontal weatherboarding, with a three-storey lantern tower rising at the centre of the facade and a gabled porte-cochere pushed out in front of it.
The proportions give the building away as a survivor. A tower of that height was designed to command a long symmetrical elevation, and without its wings it now reads as top-heavy, a face without the body it belonged to. Standing in front of it, the missing length is easier to imagine than to forget.
Meiji Bones, Taisho Detailing
The national heritage record makes a precise observation about this building: the overall skeleton follows Meiji-period convention, while the details show the simplified treatment characteristic of the Taisho years. Both statements can be checked from the pavement.
The Meiji framework is the symmetrical layout, the central tower, the boarded walls and the projecting entrance canopy, a formula used for government schools and offices across Japan from the 1880s onward. The Taisho reduction shows in what is absent. Mouldings are shallower than a Meiji equivalent, brackets and trim are pared back, and the ornamental vocabulary is thinner. By 1914 the taste for elaborate Western detailing in public timber architecture had cooled, and budgets had tightened with it.
Registration was granted on 28 April 2000 and gazetted on 17 May, under register number 01-0022, on the criterion of serving as a model of design. Hakodate holds an unusually dense collection of registered Western-style timber buildings, and this one entered the register on the same day as Prairie House, the former Sada residence.
A note on dates: an explanatory plaque on the site gives February 2000 for the registration, which does not match the Agency for Cultural Affairs record. The agency's dates are used here.
A Century of Teacher Training in One Room
Teacher training in Hakodate goes back further than the building. The Hakodate Elementary Teaching Institute opened in February 1876, was renamed the government Hakodate Normal School in 1880, and closed in 1886 when the Hokkaido Government was established. Training lapsed for a quarter of a century. In 1912 the education minister authorised a new institution, and Hokkaido Hakodate Normal School opened on 1 April 1914, the year this building was completed.
The institutional line has run unbroken since. Hokkaido Second Normal School in 1943, a branch of Hokkaido Gakugei University in 1949, Hokkaido University of Education Hakodate Branch in 1966, Hakodate Campus in 1993. The university dates its founding to 1914 and takes its guiding motto from a phrase presented at the opening by Count Higashikuze, on cultivating the land and increasing its people.
Preservation was driven by graduates. The alumni association, the Sekiyokai, campaigned to save the old main building, and a decision to keep the central bay was reached in 1967, with the section moved to its present position and reopened as an archive room. A major repair programme followed in May 2008, funded as the association's ninetieth anniversary project, which restored the building's appearance after more than ninety years of use.
The rooms inside hold material from the whole span, from the 1876 teaching institute through the normal school years to the present university: documents, teaching materials, and work by staff and graduates. The collection was sorted into four thematic groups in 2000 and 2001, and the alumni association still manages it.
Anyone wanting to see the interior should apply in advance. Viewing is possible on weekdays between 9:00 and 17:00, and the building is also opened to the general public on open-campus days and at graduation ceremonies. From Hakodate Station, take Hakodate Bus route 47 for about 20 minutes to Kyoikudai-dori and walk five minutes, or take the streetcar to Goryokaku-koen-mae and walk about fifteen minutes. By car it is roughly ten minutes from the station and twenty-five from Hakodate Airport. The exterior can be photographed from the campus approach; ask before photographing the exhibits.
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Q&A
- Can I go inside the Northern Education Archive Room at Hokkaido University of Education Hakodate Campus?
- Yes, with advance notice. The university asks visitors wishing to see the interior to apply beforehand, and viewing is possible on weekdays from 9:00 to 17:00. The building is also opened without appointment on open-campus days and at graduation ceremonies.
- How do I reach the Northern Education Archive Room from Hakodate Station?
- Hakodate Bus route 47 takes about 20 minutes to the Kyoikudai-dori stop, five minutes on foot from the campus. Route 82 runs to Miyamae-cho in about 10 minutes, ten minutes on foot. By streetcar, ride to Goryokaku-koen-mae and walk roughly 15 minutes. By car it is about 10 minutes.
- Why is only part of the old Hakodate Normal School building preserved?
- New campus construction in the 1960s meant the old main building had to go. Graduates campaigned to save it, and in 1967 the decision was taken to keep the central bay, which was moved to its present site and turned into an archive room. The wings were not retained.
- What is the lantern tower on the Northern Education Archive Room?
- It is a three-storey tower at the centre of the facade, topped by a small glazed lantern. Towers of this kind marked the entrance axis of Meiji-period public buildings in Japan. A gabled porte-cochere projects beneath it over the entrance.
- What is displayed inside the Northern Education Archive Room?
- Material tracing teacher training in Hakodate from the 1876 teaching institute onward, including normal school records, teaching materials, and works by staff and graduates. The holdings were organised into four thematic groups in 2000 and 2001 and are managed by the alumni association.
- Are there other registered Western-style buildings near the Hakodate campus?
- Hakodate has a large number of them. Prairie House, the former Sada residence, was registered on the same day in 2000, and the Iai Gakuin auditorium, the Hakodate Chinese Memorial Hall and several Koryuji temple structures are also on the national register.
Basic Information
| Name | Northern Education Archive Room, Hokkaido University of Education Hakodate Campus (former Hakodate Normal School) |
|---|---|
| Location | 1-2 Hachiman-cho, Hakodate City, Hokkaido |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure), register no. 01-0022 |
| Year Designated | Registered 28 April 2000, gazetted 17 May 2000 |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Two-storey timber frame, tiled roof, floor area 320 m² |
| Owner | Hokkaido University of Education (national university corporation) |
| Public Access | Interior viewing by prior application, weekdays 9:00 to 17:00; open to all on open-campus and graduation days |
References
- National Cultural Properties Database, Agency for Cultural Affairs: Northern Education Archive Room (former Hakodate Normal School)
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00001543
- Cultural Heritage Online: Northern Education Archive Room (former Hakodate Normal School)
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/181453
- Hokkaido University of Education Hakodate Campus: History
- https://www.hokkyodai.ac.jp/hak/intro/history.html
- Sekiyokai Alumni Association: Memorial Hall
- https://sekiyoukai.com/memorial-hall/
- City of Hakodate: List of Cultural Properties
- https://www.city.hakodate.hokkaido.jp/docs/2016072500056/
Last verified: 2026.08.27