Former Senkyo Elementary School Building

A Meiji Schoolhouse Built at Three Times the Town Budget

The Former Senkyo Elementary School Building is a two-story timber schoolhouse in Nabeya, Maniwa City, Okayama Prefecture, completed in 1907 and designated an Important Cultural Property of Japan in 1999. Its Japanese name is Kyū Senkyō Jinjō Shōgakkō Kōsha (旧遷喬尋常小学校校舎), and it is often called the Former Senkyo Jinjo Elementary School, jinjō being the Meiji-era term for the compulsory ordinary grades. The building is known for its strictly symmetrical front, and it is open to everyone free of charge.

The school traces its roots to Meishinkan, a local academy that townspeople opened in 1870 in what is now Daikanaya, Maniwa. The Confucian scholar Yamada Hokoku named it and wrote its name board himself; his own students did the teaching, and the first intake numbered 46. In August 1874 the school reopened in a former rice granary of the Kuse magistrate's office.

A growing roll forced a move to a new site. Construction began in July 1905 and finished in July 1907, on the 20th according to the operators. The work cost 17,984 yen and 56 sen, which the operators calculate at 2.93 times the town's ordinary annual budget. Cypress and cedar were selected from the Kiyama national forest in Maniwa.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs records that Egawa Saburohachi, an engineer with the Okayama prefectural government, is said to have been involved in the design. Nakamura Jotaro supervised construction, and Takahashi Iwakichi of the town of Tsuyama carried it out. The Senkyo school building stayed in use until the school moved in the summer of 1990.

What "Senkyo" means

The name comes from "Fa Mu," a poem in the Chinese Classic of Poetry: a bird leaves the dark valley and moves up into a tall tree. The image was read as a call to rise in life through study, and Yamada Hokoku is credited with choosing the two characters. The school keeps up a sister-school exchange with Senkyo Elementary School in Tottori City, which shares the name.

Why the Senkyo School Building Was Designated

The agency designated the Former Senkyo Elementary School Building for its high historical value. Its commentary points to the symmetrical plan, with wings extending east and west from a central block, the distinctive design, the relatively large scale and the good state of preservation.

The agency also places the building in a national timeline. It was built in the late Meiji period, after standard design rules for Japanese school buildings had been established, and the agency ranks it among the representative schools of that era and an important reference for the history of elementary school architecture in the Chugoku region.

The national database describes a timber structure of two stories with a building area of 601.2 square meters, roofed in slate and sangawara tiles, with two entrances attached at the rear. The Maniwa Espace Cultural Promotion Foundation, which runs the site, calls it the largest surviving example of Egawa's style of Giyōfū, the Western-inspired timber architecture of Meiji Japan.

Maniwa City drew up a basic plan for the building's upkeep and use in March 2022 and has since adopted a conservation and utilization plan covering earthquake resistance, fire and crime prevention, and barrier-free access.

What to Look For at the Senkyo School

The symmetrical facade

From the schoolyard, the white facade of the Senkyo school building divides neatly down its center line. A dormer window at the middle of the roof carries the school crest, surrounded by ornamental windows, finials shaped like the five-tiered stone pagodas of Japanese cemeteries, and diagonal bracing laid out to suggest half-timbering. Each is a small piece of Western vocabulary rendered by Japanese carpenters, and spotting them one by one is part of the fun.

The coffered ceiling of the assembly hall

Inside, the room to see is the assembly hall at the center of the upper floor. Its Gō-tenjō coffered ceiling rises in two coved steps around the edges, finished in a Western manner. Stand in the middle of the hall and look up to see how the tiers stack.

The detailing rewards a closer look. Wainscots and door panels are carefully worked, and almost every chamfered edge stops short of the ends, a fussy finish that takes far more time than a plain bevel. The foundation compares the interior to a state guesthouse, and details like these explain why.

A film location with exhibits to match

The Senkyo school has served as a location for the film Always: Sunset on Third Street (released in 2005), for Nippon TV's drama Grave of the Fireflies, made for the 60th anniversary of the war's end, and for an NHK morning drama series. Scripts and photographs from the shoots are on display, along with a model of the school made by Egawa Saburohachi.

Old-style school uniforms can be rented for 800 yen each between 10:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., which makes for memorable photos in the corridors.

Visiting the Former Senkyo Elementary School Building

Admission to the Former Senkyo Elementary School Building is free, and anyone may walk through during opening hours. The building is open from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.; guided tour groups are received from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and the shop opens from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. It is closed on Wednesdays (or the following weekday when Wednesday is a holiday) and over the New Year period. Temporary closures and pauses in tour bookings are announced for events, so check the notices on the official website before you go.

Volunteer guides are available by reservation for 3,000 yen per guide, tax included. Photography for personal use is unrestricted. Eating, smoking and open flames are not allowed outside designated areas, and pets are not permitted except assistance dogs.

The school is about a 10-minute walk from JR Kuse Station. By car it is about 5 minutes from the Kuse interchange on the Yonago Expressway, and parking is available for 50 cars and 3 buses. The operators recommend entering "Kuse Espace Center," the arts venue next door, into car navigation systems. The open ground in front of the school is sometimes used as overflow parking during events at the center. For inquiries, call 0867-42-7000.