Wakakusa Church Chapel (Former United Church of Christ in Japan Kanazawa Church)

About Wakakusa Church Chapel

Wakakusa Church Chapel (Former United Church of Christ in Japan Kanazawa Church) (若草教会（旧日本基督教団金沢教会）礼拝堂) is a timber chapel in Wakakusa-machi, Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, built in 1891 and moved to its present site in 1955. It was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2006.

According to Wakakusa Church, the building first stood in Kōrinbō, in the center of Kanazawa next to the Daiwa department store, as the sanctuary of the Kanazawa Church of the Church of Christ in Japan. Wakakusa Church itself is a postwar congregation. It began in 1947 as a Saturday school for children living in former army barracks. When the young congregation moved to Wakakusa-machi in 1955, it took over the old Kanazawa sanctuary and rebuilt it here.

The church describes the chapel as one of the oldest Western-style buildings in the Hokuriku region. A full renovation in 1993 renewed the interior and services, a further renovation followed in 2003, and the building is still used for worship every week.

Why Wakakusa Church Chapel Is Registered

Wakakusa Church Chapel was registered on March 2, 2006, as number 17-0145, under the criterion of buildings that serve as a model of design.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs records it as timber, single-storey with a 2-storey section, tile-roofed, with a building area of 172 square meters. The sanctuary, a prayer room and a Japanese-style tatami room are arranged in an L, and only the tatami wing rises to 2 storeys. The roof is a steep gable in the Kirizuma-zukuri form, laid with interlocking pantiles.

What the Agency praises is the interior. In keeping with Protestant practice the room is stripped of ornament and has no ceiling, so the roof structure is open to view. That structure pairs double horizontal members clasping the rafters with slender iron tie rods, a light and economical way to span the room that shows how a Meiji-era builder solved a Western roof in timber.

The L-shaped plan with its tatami room matters too. A Western chapel with a Japanese room attached shows how a provincial church of the Meiji era fitted into ordinary Japanese life.

What to Look For

Outside, study the pitch of the roof. A steep gable covered in pantiles, built for Kanazawa's heavy snow, makes this Western church look more at home among the town's tiled roofs than you might expect.

Inside, look straight up. There are no ceiling boards; the paired beams and thin iron ties sit right under the roof. The timber members are kept slim and the iron draws them tight, which is what makes the room feel light.

The chapel has a pipe organ installed in 1997, built by the English firm Walker, with 9 stops, 2 manuals and pedals. The church also keeps a reed organ by the American maker Mason and Hamlin that was used before it.

Visiting Wakakusa Church Chapel

Wakakusa Church is an active congregation with no sightseeing hours and no admission fee. The exterior can be seen from the street.

Sunday worship runs from 10:20 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., and the church says anyone may join its gatherings. On the 1st Sunday there is also an evening service at 7:00 p.m. To see the interior, attend worship or contact the church in advance.

Keep photography to the exterior from the public road, and ask before photographing inside or during services.

By bus, take a Hokutetsu bus bound for Heiwamachi from Kanazawa Station and get off at Teramachi 1-chome. Walk about 50 meters ahead and turn right at the Juichiya-sho-mae traffic light; the church is on the corner just before the fork in front of Noda Junior High School. Drivers can use a nearby lot contracted by Wakakusa Kindergarten on Sundays; ask the church for details.