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

About the Kyoto Art Center South Building

The Kyoto Art Center South Building (京都芸術センター南館（旧京都市立明倫小学校南校舎）) is the former south wing of Meirin Elementary School, a three-storey reinforced-concrete building with a four-storey part, built in 1931 and 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 four-storey part, with a building area of 652 square metres; registration number 26-0304, 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 South 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 South Building runs east from the south-east corner of the west building. It has a round-arched entrance at its west end and a door to the playground towards the east on the north side; classrooms line a corridor on the north, with special classrooms at the east end and an etiquette room on the fourth floor (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The hipped (Yosemune-zukuri) roof of the west-end tower and the row of three round windows are its signature (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The old etiquette room on the fourth floor is now the Japanese room Meirin, used for tea gatherings (Kyoto Art Center).

Visiting the Kyoto Art Center South 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.