A Spanish Villa Built by an Industrialist in Suburban Hyogo
The building carries the name of a university in Ehime, yet it stands more than 200 kilometers away, on a quiet residential street near Koshienguchi Station in Nishinomiya, Hyogo. This apparent contradiction points to the story behind it. The Main Building of the Onzan Memorial Hall was the private home of Nitta Chojiro (1857–1936), a self-made industrialist from Matsuyama who founded the predecessor of today's Matsuyama University. When his family donated the estate to the university in 1989, the school took over a villa that had never belonged to its home prefecture at all.
Nitta built the house in 1928 as a family residence, choosing the mild climate and cleaner air of the Hanshin suburbs over central Osaka, where he had made his fortune. He was the man who produced Japan's first power transmission belts, and the company he started survives today as Nitta Corporation. "Onzan" was his art name, and the memorial hall now bears it.
For the design he turned to family. The architect was Kigo Shichiro (1884–1955), his son-in-law, a graduate of the architecture program at Tokyo Imperial University whose father had served as a master builder to the imperial household. Kigo designed a two-story house of reinforced concrete measuring roughly 20 meters east to west and 15 meters north to south, with a hipped roof laid in Spanish (S-shaped) tiles and a total floor area of about 582 square meters, plus a basement. A car porch marks the front, and the whole exterior is worked in a restrained Western idiom.
Why the House Is Protected
In March 2006 the Agency for Cultural Affairs added the Main Building to the national register as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property, under registration number 28-0216. The register is a lighter category than the better-known designations of Important Cultural Property or National Treasure, and it was created in 1996 specifically to protect the large stock of modern buildings, roughly fifty to a hundred years old, that fall outside the older system. Owners keep working use of the buildings while agreeing not to alter them carelessly.
The Main Building qualified under the criterion for structures that serve as a model of design. What the assessors valued was less any single rare feature than the coherence of the whole: a fully realized Spanish-style residence from the early Showa era, built with the best materials available at the time and preserved close to its original state. Five related structures on the same grounds were registered at the same moment, and together they document how a wealthy industrialist lived in the Hanshin corridor between the wars.
That corridor matters to the reading of the house. From the late Meiji period into the early Showa years, as Osaka industrialized and its air worsened, prosperous families moved to Nishinomiya, Ashiya, Takarazuka, and Kobe, building villas served by new railway lines. The taste of the period ran to imported Western styles, and Nitta's Spanish villa sits squarely within what is now called Hanshinkan Modernism.
What to Look For
Approach from the front and the car porch reads first, its roofline carrying the same S-shaped tiles that run across the main roof. The entrance itself sits back from the wall by about 60 centimeters, framed so that the surrounding surface flares outward like a picture mount. Look closely at the doorway and the small windows beside it: the glass includes crown glass, blown with a thick bullseye at the center, and the surrounds are set with tiles in an Islamic-influenced pattern.
Inside, the rooms show where the money went. Floors are laid in geometric parquet, and what was once the billiard room, the main entertaining space, now serves as a recreation room. The former dining room, kept as a meeting space, has a ceiling worked in carved wood. Stained glass and original furniture remain in place, and the house was fitted throughout with central heating, an unusual luxury for a private residence of the 1920s in Japan.
The estate is owned by Matsuyama University and used for student seminars and research meetings, so it is not a museum open every day. Visits are generally possible outside the seminar seasons, and the building has also served as a filming location. Anyone hoping to see the interior should contact the university in advance to confirm current arrangements rather than arriving unannounced.
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Q&A
- Why does a university in Ehime own a house in Hyogo?
- The house was the private residence of Nitta Chojiro, who founded the school that became Matsuyama University. His family donated the estate to the university in 1989, so the property carries the university's name although it stands in Nishinomiya, not in Matsuyama.
- Who designed it?
- Kigo Shichiro (1884–1955), Nitta's son-in-law and a Tokyo Imperial University graduate. His other works include Bansuiso and the former Ehime Prefectural Office in Matsuyama.
- What does "Onzan" mean?
- It was Nitta Chojiro's art name, or go, a personal pen name of the kind educated Japanese of his era often adopted. The memorial hall is named after it.
- Can I go inside?
- Sometimes. The university uses the building for student activities, but viewing is often possible at other times. Contact Matsuyama University in advance to check whether the interior can be seen on your intended date.
Basic Information
| Name | Matsuyama University Onzan Memorial Hall Main Building |
|---|---|
| Location | 1-12-31 Koshienguchi, Nishinomiya, Hyogo |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (registered 2 March 2006; register no. 28-0216) |
| Built | 1928 (Showa 3) |
| Architect | Kigo Shichiro |
| Structure | Reinforced concrete, two stories with basement; hipped roof in Spanish tile; floor area approx. 582 sq m; about 20 m (E–W) by 15 m (N–S) |
| Owner | Matsuyama University |
| Access / viewing | About 5 minutes on foot from JR Koshienguchi Station. Not a permanent museum; confirm viewing with the university in advance. |
References
- National Database of Designated Cultural Properties — Matsuyama University Onzan Memorial Hall Main Building
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00005306
- Matsuyama University — Onzan Memorial Hall
- https://www.matsuyama-u.ac.jp/guide/campus/kinen/
- Nishinomiya-style — Matsuyama University Onzan Memorial Hall (former Nitta Residence)
- https://nishinomiya-style.jp/glossary/matsuyamakinekan
Last verified: 2026.07.02