Former Ishikawa Prefectural Second Middle School Main Building

A Meiji Middle School of 1899

The Former Ishikawa Prefectural Second Middle School Main Building (旧石川県第二中学校本館) is a Western-style timber school building of 1899 in Tobiume-machi, Kanazawa City, Ishikawa Prefecture, and was designated an Important Cultural Property on November 28, 2017 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency records a two-storey timber building of 603.40 square metres roofed in tile and partly in copper, with three design drawings included in the designation; designation number 02673.

An Early School under the Middle School Order

The building is an early surviving example of the middle schools set up under the revised Middle School Order of the mid-Meiji era, completed in 1899 to a design by Yamaguchi Kokichi, an engineer of Ishikawa Prefecture (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

According to Ishikawa Prefecture, the school opened as the Second Middle School in April 1899. After the old-system middle schools were abolished in 1948 it became Shikindai Junior High School. From 1978 it housed the city's folk culture exhibition hall, renamed the Kanazawa Museum of Local History and Folklore in 2007. The prefecture designated it as the "three-spired school building" in 1999.

Why It Is an Important Cultural Property

The Agency notes that, while following the design guidelines of the day, it shows originality in its decoration: spires on the inner sides of the wings, pediments at key points of the roof and small gabled windows set in a regular rhythm. It is highly valued for tracing the development of modern school architecture.

What to Look For

The plan is H-shaped, with wings at each end of the main block and a carriage porch at the centre of the front (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Look for the three spires inside the wings, the pediments on the roof and the regular row of small gabled windows.

Outside, clapboard surrounds the windows above vertical-board dados, with rows of sash windows in a Western style (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Inside, classrooms open off a single corridor on the south side of the main block.

Visiting

The building is open as the Kanazawa Museum of Local History and Folklore. According to Kanazawa City it is open from 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., with displays including a recreated townhouse room, everyday objects of the past and tools of traditional crafts. Check closing days and admission with the museum.