Kyoto Art Center North Building (former Meirin Elementary School North Wing)

About the Kyoto Art Center North Building

The Kyoto Art Center North Building (京都芸術センター北館（旧京都市立明倫小学校北校舎）) is the former north wing of Meirin Elementary School, a three-storey reinforced-concrete building of 1931 renovated in 1999, at the Kyoto Art Center on Muromachi-dori south of Takoyakushi, Nakagyo Ward, Kyoto, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on July 8, 2008.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs records it as reinforced concrete, three storeys, with a building area of 499 square metres; registration number 26-0305, owned by Kyoto City. The west, south and north buildings and the main gate and wall of the former Meirin Elementary School were all registered on July 8, 2008 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

Why It Was Registered

The Kyoto Art Center North Building was registered as a building that contributes to the historic landscape of the country. According to the Kyoto Art Center, the Meirin school buildings date from a major rebuilding of 1931 to designs by the Kyoto City building department, and the conversion into the art centre kept them almost unchanged (Kyoto Art Center).

What to Look For

The Kyoto Art Center North Building joins the north-east corner of the west building by a covered corridor. A projection to the south at its west end holds ramps up to the second and third floors, its end rounded in a quarter circle (Agency for Cultural Affairs); the Kyoto Art Center notes the ramps were practical for moving loads and as escape routes.

A door to the playground opens towards the east on the south side; inside, classrooms line a north corridor, with special classrooms at the east end. Canopies over the third-floor windows stress the horizontal lines (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

Visiting the Kyoto Art Center North Building

Admission to the Kyoto Art Center is free. It is open 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. (galleries, library and information corner until 8:00 p.m.) and closed December 28 to January 4. The auditorium, the great hall, the Japanese room and the studios can be seen only when opened for events, but the library, café and corridors alone give a good sense of the old school (Kyoto Art Center). It is a 5-minute walk from exits 22 and 24 of Shijo Station on the Karasuma subway line or Karasuma Station on the Hankyu line. There is no parking.