Nara Prefectural Unebi High School Main Building North Wing

The North Wing of the 1933 Main Building

The Nara Prefectural Unebi High School Main Building North Wing (奈良県立畝傍高等学校本館北館) is a 3-storey reinforced concrete school building of 1933 in Yagicho, Kashihara City, Nara Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on August 13, 2012 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency records a 3-storey reinforced concrete building with a tiled roof, a tower and a building area of 983 square metres, renovated in 1976 and 1990; registration number 29-0199.

The Front Block Facing the Schoolyard

The Nara Prefectural Unebi High School Main Building North Wing stands at the centre of the south side of the campus and faces north across the schoolyard (Agency for Cultural Affairs). It is a long, narrow 3-storey block, 94.7 metres from east to west and 10 metres deep, with a pyramidal Hōgyō-zukuri tower roofed in Hongawarabuki tiles rising at the centre of the front and a carriage porch projecting below it.

The edges of the flat roof are finished all round with traditional tiles, so a tiled eave line runs around the concrete box. The Agency describes the North Wing as a school building that blends Western and Japanese styles, adding Japanese details at key points of a modern structure. The school history gives October 25, 1933 as the completion date of the main building.

Why It Was Registered

The Agency registered the Nara Prefectural Unebi High School Main Building North Wing as a model of design. At its heart is the combination of a reinforced concrete frame with traditional elements: the tower and the tiled eaves.

A 2010 report by Kurosaka Takahiro of the Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties attributes the main building to the architect Iwasaki Heitarō, and points to the pyramidal roof over the entrance crowned with a Sōrin spire, the same device used on the old JR Nara Station, as the source of its commanding presence.

What to Look For

The first thing to look for on the Nara Prefectural Unebi High School Main Building North Wing is the central tower. A spire rises from the peak of its pyramidal roof, giving the long 3-storey front a pagoda-like centre (Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties).

Along the full 94.7 metres of the block, the tiled eaves at the roof edge run unbroken from end to end. Take in the tower and the tiled eaves together and the mix of concrete and Japanese roofing becomes clear.

Visiting

The Nara Prefectural Unebi High School Main Building North Wing is still in use as a school building, and no official information on interior access or photography was found. The front with the tower and carriage porch faces the schoolyard, so a visit depends on the school's permission.