Kansai French-Japanese Institute

A Perret-School Building Facing Kyoto University

The Kansai French-Japanese Institute (関西日仏学館, Kansai Nichifutsu Gakkan) is a reinforced concrete institute building completed in 1936 in Yoshida Izumidonocho, Sakyo Ward, Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture, which in 1998 was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs records three storeys above ground and one below, with a building area of 549 square metres. It belongs to the Japan-France Culture Association and was registered as a building that has become a model of design.

It remains the Kyoto base of the French government's cultural institute in the Kansai region, which again uses the name Institut franco-japonais du Kansai.

History

According to the French Embassy in Japan, the institute was founded in December 1926 by the poet and ambassador Paul Claudel on Kujoyama in Kyoto, and moved into the present building on its completion in May 1936.

The embassy notes that the building faces the main gate of Kyoto University and was designed and supervised by the Osaka architect Kigo Shichiro from an outline by the French architect Raymond Mestrallet, a pupil of Auguste Perret; it was a strikingly new Western-style building for its day.

Why It Matters

The Agency credits the basic design to Mestrallet, a pupil of Perret, the leading French architect of the twentieth century. It praises a classical framework of refined pilasters and cornice lines in the Perret manner, softened by curved surfaces at key points.

The Agency also notes that the Kansai French-Japanese Institute stands on Higashioji-dori and, with the buildings of Kyoto University, forms part of the university quarter.

What to Look For

From Higashioji-dori, the vertical lines of the pilasters and the horizontal line of the cornice mark out the building's frame like a grid. Translating a concrete structure into the proportions of classical columns and beams is the hallmark of the Perret school.

Then look for the curved surfaces the Agency singles out. Set within the straight-lined frame, they soften its severity.

Visiting the Kansai French-Japanese Institute

According to the institute, reception is open from 9:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Tuesday to Friday and from 9:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. on Saturdays, closed on Sundays, Mondays and public holidays, with a summer closure. Check before visiting.

It is about 12 minutes on foot from Demachiyanagi Station on the Keihan Line, or next to the Kyodai Seimon-mae stop of city buses 31, 65, 201 and 206 and the Higashi-Ichijo stop of Kyoto Bus 18. The address is 8 Yoshida Izumidonocho, Sakyo Ward, Kyoto; telephone 075-761-2105.