Kamada Kyosaikai Local History Museum (former Library)

A 1922 Library Built by a Sakaide Philanthropist

The Kamada Kyosaikai Local History Museum (former Library) (鎌田共済会郷土博物館（旧図書館）) is a three-storey reinforced-concrete former library of 1922 in Honmachi, Sakaide City, Kagawa Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on December 11, 1998. It was the central facility of the Kamada Kyosaikai foundation set up by the Sakaide businessman Kamada Katsutaro (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency for Cultural Affairs records it as three-storey reinforced concrete with a building area of 444 square metres; registration number 37-0018, owned by the Kamada Kyosaikai foundation.

Kamada Katsutaro and the Kamada Kyosaikai

According to the Agency, the Kamada Kyosaikai was a foundation set up by Kamada Katsutaro for charity, scholarships and adult education of many kinds, and this building was its core facility.

It was designed and built by Takenaka Komuten under the supervision of the Kagawa prefectural engineer Fuji Seiichi (Agency for Cultural Affairs). It now serves as a local history museum, registered under the Museum Act on September 11, 1968, according to Kagawa Prefecture's list of registered museums.

The Kume Tsuken Collection

According to Cultural Heritage Online, the Kamada Kyosaikai holds 1,061 items relating to Kume Tsuken (1780 to 1841), a scientist of the Takamatsu domain in the late Edo period, designated an Important Cultural Property on August 21, 2014.

Kume studied astronomy and surveying in Osaka under Hazama Shigetomi, then back in Sanuki surveyed and mapped the domain with instruments of his own design, observed the heavens, designed and supervised the Sakaide salt-field reclamation begun in 1826, and developed firearms (Cultural Heritage Online). The collection includes survey notebooks, draft maps and records of eclipses and comets.

Why It Was Registered

The Kamada Kyosaikai Local History Museum was registered as a building that contributes to the historic landscape of the country. The Agency for Cultural Affairs values it as evidence of the work of an early Japanese foundation and as an early full-scale reinforced-concrete library.

What to Look For

The Kamada Kyosaikai Local History Museum is a three-storey reinforced-concrete building of 1922 with a building area of 444 square metres (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

Designed and built by Takenaka Komuten with oversight from the prefectural engineer, it is a serious early concrete library (Agency for Cultural Affairs); built by a private foundation for local education, it reflects Sakaide in the Taisho era.

Visiting the Kamada Kyosaikai Museum

The Kamada Kyosaikai Local History Museum is open as a registered museum, but we could not confirm official opening hours or closing days; check with the Kamada Kyosaikai (0877-46-2275) before visiting. The address is 1-1-24 Honmachi, Sakaide City (Kagawa Prefecture, Kagawa University).