Joranjuku School Building and Dormitory

Classrooms and a Dormitory by Endo Arata

The Joranjuku School Building and Dormitory (如蘭塾塾舎及び寄宿舎) is the wooden classroom wing and dormitory of Joranjuku, completed around 1943 at Takeo, Takeo-machi, Takeo City, Saga Prefecture, and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on August 23, 1999 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency for Cultural Affairs records a wooden building of one storey, partly two, with a tiled roof and a building area of 489 square metres, registration number 41-0012, owned by the Seiko Scholarship Foundation. Takeo City says Endo Arata designed it in 1941 and that it was finished in August 1942.

Why It Was Registered

The Joranjuku School Building and Dormitory was registered as a structure that has become a model of design. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes it as the core of the school Nonaka Chuta founded for young Chinese women, attributes the design to Endo Arata, then working in Manchuria, and points to the tuff entrance piers in a distinctive Wright-like manner.

Takeo City likewise values it for the involvement of a noted architect.

What to Look For

The plan is an L. The classroom wing runs east to west facing south, and the dormitory wing turns north at right angles from its east end (Agency for Cultural Affairs; Takeo City).

Where the two wings meet, two piers of stacked tuff stand in an open, wall-less entrance. Takeo City identifies the stone as Oya stone and calls the piers Wright-style; this is where his influence shows most clearly.

The classroom wing consists mainly of an office and classrooms in a row, with corridors added later. The dormitory has its own entrance off the entrance court and, behind it, a large two-storey room with board floors; much of the north side is later extension (Takeo City).

Visiting

According to the Seiko Scholarship Foundation, since the 1989 restoration visitors can see how the students lived in the dormitory, where reproductions of their summer and winter uniforms are displayed.

Visits must be arranged in advance with the foundation (0954-22-2256, weekdays 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.). The school's history and directions are on the group page Joranjuku.