Shimane Prefectural Government Office Main Building

Shimane Prefectural Government Main Office Building: A Modernist Landmark in Matsue Castle Town

In the centre of Matsue, a quiet castle town facing Lake Shinji on the San'in coast, stands a building that looks strikingly different from the black-tiered keep of the nearby National Treasure, Matsue Castle. It is the Shimane Prefectural Government Main Office Building, a six-story reinforced concrete structure completed in 1959. At first glance it may seem an ordinary mid-century office block, yet this building is considered one of the finest examples of regional modernist government architecture in Japan, and has been registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property. Its pilotis, courtyard, and the alternating rhythm of exposed concrete columns and white horizontal canopies together form a quietly confident piece of postwar design that still serves as Shimane Prefecture's working seat of government.

Historical background

The present building is the fifth generation of the Shimane prefectural office. Its predecessor, a Meiji-era wooden building, was lost to fire in 1945, and for more than a decade afterwards prefectural administration was carried out in temporary quarters. Under the 23rd governor, Tanabe Chōemon, a comprehensive "Plan for the Area around the Shimane Prefectural Office" was drawn up to rebuild not only the main hall but the wider civic precinct as a coherent modern environment.

The design of the main building was entrusted to Yasuda Kataru (1911–1977), an architect born in Ōnan Town, Shimane, who at the time served as a technical officer in the Buildings and Repairs Bureau of the Ministry of Construction. Yasuda also designed the adjacent Assembly Hall and, later, the Shimane Civic Centre. Construction on the main office was completed on 25 January 1959. Together with works by Kikutake Kiyonori that followed around it, the prefectural office precinct received the prestigious Annual Prize of the Architectural Institute of Japan (Works Category) in 1970, and in 2020 it was selected by DOCOMOMO Japan as an architecture of the Modern Movement in Japan.

In November 2023 the original hand-drawn blueprints for the building, long thought to be lost, were rediscovered in a basement storeroom of the prefectural office and later presented to the public in a special exhibition, giving fresh life to the story of its design.

Why it was designated a cultural property

On 5 December 2019, the Main Office Building, together with the Assembly Hall, was entered on the national register of Tangible Cultural Properties (structures). In Japan, the registration system protects historical buildings that are at least fifty years old and have been recognised as possessing a certain level of value. The Shimane prefectural office was evaluated under the criterion "a model of formal design" (zōkei no kihan).

Three qualities are cited in the official description. First, it is an outstanding example of modernist government architecture in a regional setting, at a time when such buildings were usually commissioned in Japan's largest cities. Second, its composition — a pilotis on the ground floor, a south-facing plan organised around a courtyard, exposed concrete columns and beams with wide window openings, and crisp white canopies wrapping every floor — is handled with remarkable clarity and restraint. Third, it remains in active use as a working government building more than six decades after completion, a continuity of function that itself adds to its cultural value.

Highlights of the architecture

The Shimane Prefectural Government Main Office Building rewards unhurried looking. The visitor approaching from the front garden first meets the open ground-floor pilotis, where the weight of the upper stories appears to rest lightly on slender columns. The columns here are clad in Ōashi stone, a warm grey stone quarried in the Matsue area, which softens the feel of the concrete and roots the building in its region.

Visitor information

As a working government office, the building can be viewed freely from the outside during daylight hours, and the surrounding gardens are open to the public. Visitors who wish to look inside are kindly asked to stop first at the reception or secretariat and to refrain from taking photographs of staff and members of the public. Access by some areas may be limited depending on the day's business.

The closest stop is the Kenchōmae (Prefectural Office Front) bus stop on the Matsue City Lakeline Bus, about a 20-minute ride from JR Matsue Station. The building is also within a ten-minute walk of Matsue Castle and the samurai-era Shiomi Nawate street. Picking up the "Matsue Contemporary Architecture Walking Map", distributed by Shimane Prefecture, makes it easy to trace a route through the wider Yasuda-Kikutake architectural precinct.

Around the building

The Main Office Building sits at the foot of Matsue Castle Hill and is easily combined with a fuller day of sightseeing. Highlights nearby include:

• Matsue Castle — one of only twelve original castle keeps remaining in Japan, and a designated National Treasure, a short walk north of the prefectural office.
• The Shiomi Nawate samurai residence street, preserved along the castle's northern moat, lined with white plaster walls and dark timber gates.
• The Horikawa pleasure-boat cruise, which circles the castle moats and passes directly below parts of the modernist precinct.
• Karakoro Kōbō, a craft and café complex housed in the former Bank of Japan Matsue Branch building, itself a Registered Tangible Cultural Property.
• The shores of Lake Shinji, especially beautiful at sunset, a few minutes to the west.