Notre Dame Seishin University Notre Dame Hall East Building

What Is the Notre Dame Seishin University Notre Dame Hall East Building?

The Notre Dame Seishin University Notre Dame Hall East Building is a three-storey reinforced concrete building in Ifukucho, Kita-ku, Okayama City, built in 1929 around the university chapel and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan on July 31, 2007.

In Japanese it is ノートルダム清心女子大学ノートルダムホール東棟 (Nōtoru Damu Hōru Higashitō). The Notre Dame Hall East Building stands east of the Main Building and faces east, with a building area of 2,176 square meters. Antonin Raymond designed it and Obayashi-gumi built it, and it was completed in December 1929 along with the Main Building. According to the university archives, it first served as the convent of the sisters who ran the school.

The chapel is on the second floor. The university notes that it sits a little apart from the other buildings, which keeps it quiet. Early-morning Masses, the opening Mass of the school festival, and memorial Masses are held there, and it is open to everyone who studies at the university for prayer and reflection. The rest of the building holds modern teaching rooms, including computer-assisted language labs.

Why the Notre Dame Hall East Building Was Registered

The Notre Dame Hall East Building is entry 33-0155 in the national register, listed, like the Main Building, under the criterion that it serves as a model of architectural form. The Agency for Cultural Affairs points to its wealth of geometric design: small windows of colored glass set out in strict order across the front, and round columns in the bell tower.

The agency's description goes on to note that the chapel ceiling forms a gentle arch and that the light fittings inside are original. It is not only the exterior composition that counts here, but the survival of the chapel interior as it was first made.

The university treats the East Building as its symbol. Professor Ueda, a scholar of architecture at the university, read the chapel front as a design meant to reach toward heaven and praised the building's composed, upright beauty.

Highlights of the Notre Dame Hall East Building

A grid of colored glass

Across the east-facing chapel front, small rectangular windows sit exactly on a grid, each filled with colored glass. Because every opening is the same size and spacing, the whole wall reads like a sheet of graph paper. From outside it is pure geometry; inside, the morning light from the east passes through the colored glass into the chapel.

The bell tower and its round columns

A bell tower rises at the top of the East Building, and round columns stand within it. Above a facade made entirely of right angles, the curved columns catch the eye and give the composition its finishing accent.

The covered cross

The university archives preserve a wartime story about the Notre Dame Hall East Building. The school was asked to remove the cross from the convent tower, and agreement was won instead by covering it. At a time when official pressure on Christianity was growing, it shows how the community held on to the building's central symbol.

An arched chapel ceiling

The chapel ceiling curves in a shallow arch, and the original light fittings are still in use. Behind the straight lines of the modernist exterior, the chapel offers a quiet room shaped by a single gentle curve.

Visiting the Notre Dame Hall East Building

The Notre Dame Hall East Building is in daily use for classes and worship, and its interior is not open to the public. Visits must be arranged with the university in advance and mainly cover the exterior. Photography inside the chapel and the building is prohibited, so pictures are limited to the outside. If a Mass is under way, keep voices low near the chapel.

Because the front faces east, the best time to see the Notre Dame Hall East Building is in the morning, when sun falls on the colored-glass windows. Step back a little and the window grid, the bell tower, and the Central Building rising behind them all fit into one view.

The university's notice for its guided viewing makes no mention of the chapel interior, so if you hope to see inside, ask when you apply. Directions and booking details are on the Notre Dame Seishin University Notre Dame Hall page.