Shimane Prefectural Government Main Building

A Modernist Prefectural Office by Matsue Castle

The Shimane Prefectural Government Main Building (島根県庁舎本庁舎) is a prefectural government building of 1959 in Tonomachi, Matsue City, Shimane Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on December 5, 2019 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency records a reinforced concrete building of six storeys above ground and two below, with a rooftop tower and a building area of 2691 square metres, altered in 2002 and 2014; registration number 32-0202.

An Office on the Site of the Castle's Third Bailey

The Main Building of the Shimane Prefectural Government stands on the site of the third bailey of Matsue Castle (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Its ground floor is raised on pilotis, and a courtyard allows the offices to face south.

Outside, the exposed concrete columns and beams frame wide windows, and white eaves run round every floor (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Shimane Prefecture notes that it was designed by the building department of the Ministry of Construction, and that its columns, cast in cedar-board formwork, cross the white eaves of each floor.

Why It Was Registered

The Agency calls it a fine example of a modernist government building in the regions, and registered it as a model of design. According to Shimane Prefecture, the buildings around the government office came from a development plan carried out between 1955 and 1974, which won the Architectural Institute of Japan Prize in 1970 and was selected by DOCOMOMO Japan in 2019.

What to Look For

Look for the board-marked concrete columns crossing the white eaves of every floor, and the pilotis on the ground floor (Agency for Cultural Affairs; Shimane Prefecture).

Visiting

It is owned by Shimane Prefecture (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The prefecture asks visitors to speak to the reception desk or office first, and to photograph only with permission and without showing other users; visits may be declined depending on use. The four buildings are introduced together on the Shimane Prefectural Government Buildings page.