Taigaku Bunko Repository

A Repository for Iwakura Tomomi's Papers

The Taigaku Bunko Repository (対岳文庫) is a single-storey reinforced-concrete exhibition and storage building of 1928 on the east side of the Iwakura Tomomi Former Residence, a National Historic Site in Iwakura Agura-cho, Sakyo Ward, Kyoto, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on October 2, 2007. It was designed by the architect Takeda Goichi (Agency for Cultural Affairs, Iwakura Tomomi Former Residence).

The Agency for Cultural Affairs records it as single-storey reinforced concrete with a tiled roof and a building area of 69 square metres; registration number 26-0266, owned by Kyoto City.

Built for the Statesman's Legacy

According to the Iwakura Tomomi Former Residence, the Taigaku Bunko was built to display and store Iwakura Tomomi's belongings and documents on the Meiji Restoration. Its designer, Takeda Goichi, was a professor at Kyoto Imperial University who also designed the main building of Kyoto City Hall.

Iwakura Tomomi lived in seclusion in the village of Iwakura from 1862 to 1867, and his former residence was designated a National Historic Site in 1932. Items relating to him are displayed in the repository, while the 1,018 Important Cultural Property documents are kept at the Kyoto City Historical Archives (Iwakura Tomomi Former Residence).

Why It Was Registered

The Taigaku Bunko Repository was registered as a building that has become a model of design. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes it as a fine small work by Takeda Goichi, simple and light in design.

What to Look For

The Taigaku Bunko Repository has an east-west main block with a gabled (Kirizuma-zukuri) entrance projecting gable-end on, under pantiles. The upper walls are clad in scratch tiles and the base finished in washed aggregate (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

Inside it is divided into a display room and a storeroom, with board floors and boarded walls (Agency for Cultural Affairs): a small building pairing a Japanese tiled roof with scratch-tile walls.

Visiting the Taigaku Bunko

The Iwakura Tomomi Former Residence admits a limited number of visitors by advance booking, in hourly slots between 9:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Admission is 400 yen for adults (500 yen from November 14 to 29), 200 yen for junior and senior high school students and 100 yen for primary pupils (Iwakura Tomomi Former Residence).

Take Kyoto Bus 24 from Kokusaikaikan Station on the Karasuma subway line to the terminus at Iwakura Jissoin and walk 3 minutes south, or walk about 20 minutes north from Iwakura Station on the Eizan Railway. The address is 100 Iwakura Agura-cho, Sakyo Ward, Kyoto; telephone 075-781-7984 (Iwakura Tomomi Former Residence).