Ashiya Buddhist Hall

A Lecture Hall for Buddhism in Ashiya

The Ashiya Buddhist Hall (芦屋仏教会館) is a hall for Buddhist lectures of 1927 in Maedacho, Ashiya City, Hyogo Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on March 27, 2018 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency records a four-storey reinforced concrete building with a building area of 220 square metres, moved by house-lifting in 2003; registration number 28-679.

A Hall Built from a Merchant's Gift

The Ashiya Buddhist Hall was built with a donation from Itō Chōbē, president of the Marubeni trading house (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Ashiya City says the seventh Itō Chōbē began Buddhist lectures in Ashiya and founded the Sōshinkai society in 1924; as it grew, he paid for a hall open to anyone who wished to hear the teachings, with backing from Osaka business leaders.

Kataoka Yasushi designed it and the Takahashi company of Osaka built it (Ashiya City). The great lecture hall and its balcony fill the ground and first floors, a meeting room sits above, and a basement makes use of the drop to the Ashiya River embankment. From 1949 to 1954 the top floor served as Ashiya's first public library.

Why It Was Registered

The Agency notes that it is said to blend Eastern and Indian details into a modern building, and that the exterior is divided at the top floor into two tiers matching the hall within, bringing varied motifs together without strain; it was registered as a model of design.

What to Look For

Look for the band that divides the walls into two tiers and the details said to be Eastern and Indian in style (Agency for Cultural Affairs). When the road to the east was widened under a land readjustment project in 2003, the building was not dismantled but jacked up and moved about 2.5 metres west (Ashiya City).

Visiting

Ashiya City says the exterior can be viewed freely. It is about 7 minutes on foot south from Hankyu Ashiyagawa Station, west from JR Ashiya Station or north from Hanshin Ashiya Station. The hall still holds public Buddhist lectures on three Sundays a month (Ashiya Buddhist Hall).