The Oldest Western House in Sendai
The Former Missionary House of Tohoku Gakuin (東北学院旧宣教師館, Tōhoku Gakuin Kyū-Senkyōshikan, known locally as DeForest House / デフォレスト館) is a wooden colonial-style residence built around 1887 at 1-6 Tsuchitoi, Aoba Ward, Sendai City, Miyagi Prefecture, and designated an Important Cultural Property on 25 July 2016.
It stands at the western edge of Tohoku Gakuin University's Tsuchitoi campus, on a gentle south-facing slope not far above the Hirose River. The land was bought specifically to house missionaries sent to Sendai for the founding of Miyagi English School. Letters written by the American missionary John Hyde DeForest establish that three Western-style houses went up on the site around 1887.
Only this one survives. The house that stood north across the road disappeared during the Meiji era. The third, built next door to the east at almost identical scale and form, was dismantled in 1967.
The building changed hands repeatedly without ever leaving mission ownership. Title passed from Doshisha to the Congregational mission body in Japan, then in 1917 to the Reformed mission body, and in 1940 to Tohoku Gakuin. Missionaries and foreign teachers lived here throughout. From 1955 the school converted it to offices and research rooms.
Why It Was Designated
The designation cites criterion three, high historical value. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes the house as a rare survival from the earliest phase of foreign missionary housing in Japan, in good condition, and singles out a floor plan that separates the household's circulation into two distinct systems.
That last point deserves unpacking. The house has two staircases. The main stair rises behind the north entrance; immediately to its east, facing the opposite direction, is a second stair for servants. Nothing about the exterior announces this. A visitor and a member of staff could move through the same house on different vertical routes, which is standard practice in Anglo-American domestic architecture of the period and rare in Japan at this date.
For Sendai the designation carried extra weight. It was the first Important Cultural Property designation for a building in the city since Tosho-gu Zuishinmon in 1980, and the first ever for a non-religious structure within the city.
The Building Itself
Two storeys of timber, roughly 16.8 metres along the ridge by 12.1 metres deep, with a footprint of 185.63 square metres. The roof is hipped and sheeted in iron, framed with a Japanese-style roof truss. A gabled section projects at the north end of the west elevation; the north-east portion runs down as a single slope. The exterior walls are clapboard.
The entrance sits at the centre of the north face under a segmental arched pediment. Inside, four rooms and a kitchen wrap counter-clockwise around the ground floor from the west side of the entrance, connected by hinged or sliding doors. A washroom and lavatory occupy the space east of the entrance. The corner room at the south-west has a fireplace on its north wall. What was probably the dining room, at the centre of the south side, keeps a serving cupboard built into its north wall.
A veranda runs along the south face and turns the corner onto the east. Two stretches of it, at the west end of the south side and the south end of the east side, are glazed as sunrooms. The upper floor repeats the arrangement with four rooms, an attic above the kitchen, and only one sunroom, at the west end of the south face.
Details survive in fragments. Capital ornaments appear on the columns except in part of the north section. Sash windows are used throughout. The interior has been altered considerably, but the floorboards appear to be original, the sunroom ceiling retains a lattice-work design, and moulding survives above later ceilings. At the eastern end of the north face a doorway once led into an attached Japanese wing, now gone.
The People Who Lived Here
The house takes its local name from John Hyde DeForest, resident through the middle and later Meiji years. His daughter Charlotte DeForest, born in 1879, went on to become the fifth president of Kobe College. For decades before the current name took hold, the building was called Sipple House, after Carl Sipple, an English teacher at Tohoku Gakuin who returned to Sendai with his family in 1948 and lived here until 1955.
The Japanese educator Niijima Jo, founder of Doshisha, came to Sendai in connection with Tokwa School, the institution that succeeded Miyagi English School. Local accounts hold that he and DeForest discussed the school's prospects in these rooms. Tokwa School itself was short-lived.
Visiting
Interior access is not available. Following the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011 the building was closed pending repair, and a protective hoarding was erected around it. Guided tours run by Tohoku Gakuin, including the cultural property tour offered in November 2025, list DeForest House as exterior viewing only.
The exterior can be seen from within the Tsuchitoi campus and from the street along its western side, though the hoarding limits the view considerably. Photography from public areas is unrestricted, and the segmental arch over the north entrance photographs well even through fencing. Anyone planning a visit should check the Tohoku Gakuin website beforehand, since repair work may alter access.
The Tsuchitoi campus lies south of Sendai Station, walkable in around twenty minutes. Subway Namboku Line stations at Itsutsubashi and Atagobashi are both close by, each within roughly five to ten minutes on foot. The campus has no visitor parking, and the university asks that visitors use public transport.
What Else Is on the Campus
Four other buildings on the same campus are Registered Tangible Cultural Properties: the main gate of 1926, the Rahauser Memorial Chapel, the university main building, and the graduate school building. The chapel and main building are sometimes shown internally during open events. Seeing the missionary house alongside the 1926 reinforced-concrete Collegiate Gothic main building gives a useful measure of how far institutional building in Sendai travelled in four decades.
Note that the missionary house was itself a Registered Tangible Cultural Property first, listed on 29 March 2013, before the higher designation of 2016 replaced that status.
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Q&A
- Can visitors go inside the Former Missionary House of Tohoku Gakuin?
- No. The building has been closed since the 2011 earthquake pending repair, and protective hoarding surrounds it. Even guided cultural property tours run by Tohoku Gakuin list it as exterior viewing only. The exterior can be seen from within the Tsuchitoi campus at no charge.
- When was the Former Missionary House of Tohoku Gakuin built and designated?
- It was built around 1887, one of three Western-style houses erected on the site for missionaries. It was listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 29 March 2013 and designated an Important Cultural Property on 25 July 2016.
- Why is the Former Missionary House of Tohoku Gakuin considered significant?
- It survives from the earliest phase of foreign missionary housing in Japan and retains a full Western domestic plan, including separate staircases and circulation routes for the household and for servants. It was the first building in Sendai to receive Important Cultural Property status since 1980, and the first non-religious one in the city.
- Why is the Former Missionary House of Tohoku Gakuin called DeForest House?
- The name comes from John Hyde DeForest, the American missionary who lived there through the middle and later Meiji period. His daughter Charlotte later became the fifth president of Kobe College. The building was previously known as Sipple House, after a postwar resident, Carl Sipple.
- How do I get to the Former Missionary House of Tohoku Gakuin?
- It stands at the western edge of the Tohoku Gakuin University Tsuchitoi campus in Aoba Ward, about twenty minutes on foot south of Sendai Station. Itsutsubashi and Atagobashi stations on the subway Namboku Line are both nearby. There is no visitor parking on campus.
Basic Information
| Name | Former Missionary House of Tohoku Gakuin (東北学院旧宣教師館), also called DeForest House |
|---|---|
| Location | 1-6 Tsuchitoi, Aoba Ward, Sendai City, Miyagi Prefecture |
| Designation | Important Cultural Property (Structures); designation number 02642; criterion 3, high historical value |
| Year Designated | 25 July 2016 (previously registered 29 March 2013) |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Wooden, two storeys, iron-sheet hipped roof; building area 185.63 sq m; approximately 16.8 m by 12.1 m |
| Owner | Tohoku Gakuin (educational corporation) |
| Public Access | Exterior viewing only from the campus; interior closed since 2011 pending repair. No admission charge |
References
- National Database of Designated Cultural Properties, Agency for Cultural Affairs
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/102/00004871
- Miyagi Prefecture, Designated Cultural Properties
- https://www.pref.miyagi.jp/soshiki/bunkazai/kyusenkyoshikan.html
- Sendai City, Designated and Registered Cultural Properties
- https://www.sendai-c.ed.jp/~bunkazai/shiteidb/c03028.html
- Tohoku Gakuin, Historical Archives Center Column
- https://www.tohoku-gakuin.jp/info/top/190917-1.html
Last verified: 2026.08.06