Shimane Prefectural Hamada High School Second Gymnasium

Shimane Prefectural Hamada High School Second Gymnasium (Former Infantry 21st Regiment Covered Drill Hall)

Standing quietly along a prefectural road in the Kurokawa district of Hamada City, Shimane Prefecture, is a modest brick building that tells a remarkable story of Japan's modernization. What looks today like an ordinary high school gymnasium was once the covered drill hall (ame-ooi renpeijō) of the Imperial Japanese Army's 21st Infantry Regiment. Built in 1916 during the Taisho era, this structure is one of the earliest buildings in Japan's San'in region to combine brick masonry with a Western-style steel truss roof, and it has been designated a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property. More than a century after its completion, the building continues to serve students as the second gymnasium of Shimane Prefectural Hamada High School.

Historical Background: A Garrison Town on the Sea of Japan

To understand this building, one must first understand Hamada's transformation during the Meiji era. After the Meiji Restoration, Hamada served as the political and economic hub of the Iwami region, hosting first the Hamada Prefectural Office and later offices of Shimane Prefecture. The city's character changed decisively in 1898 (Meiji 31), when, following the post–Sino-Japanese War expansion of army divisions, the 21st Infantry Regiment was transferred from Hiroshima to Hamada.

The regiment had originally been formed at Hiroshima Castle in 1884 (Meiji 17). Its relocation to the Kurokawa district brought a garrison of some two thousand soldiers, along with regimental headquarters, barracks, training facilities, and related infrastructure. Hamada rapidly took on the character of a military town, and the local economy flourished in response. The regiment served in numerous military campaigns before being disbanded at the end of World War II in 1945, closing a chapter of local history that had lasted nearly half a century.

After the war, many of the surviving regimental buildings were repurposed as school facilities. The drill hall that once echoed with the boots of recruits now echoes with the voices of high school students—a peaceful second life for a building born of a very different era.

Why It Was Designated: Architectural Significance

The building was registered as a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property on May 7, 1997, and its significance rests on both historical and architectural grounds.

Building a drill hall requires a wide, column-free interior so that soldiers can train in large formations under one roof, rain or shine. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, achieving such an open span with traditional Japanese timber construction was extremely difficult. To solve this problem, the Army turned to the most advanced Western building techniques of the day, combining load-bearing brick walls with a steel truss roof framework. This allowed a broad, pillar-free interior while keeping the outer envelope solid and fire-resistant.

Structures of this type were still quite rare in Japan at the time, and examples in the San'in region on the Sea of Japan side were among the earliest of their kind nationally. As a tangible document of how late-Meiji and Taisho-era Japan adopted and localized Western construction technology, the building holds a meaningful place in the history of modern Japanese architecture.

Architectural Highlights

The gymnasium is a single-story brick structure with a gable roof covered in slate, enclosing a floor area of 644 square meters. Despite its plain and unornamented exterior, the building conveys a dignified presence thanks to the texture of its aged bricks, the clean lines of its gable, and its human-scaled proportions.

Several features reward a careful look:

• The rhythmic brickwork of the long side walls, laid with the simple discipline typical of military architecture of the period.
• The gable ends, whose triangular form still hints at the drill hall's original function as a large covered training space.
• A small clerestory-like roof monitor along the ridge of the related sister building at Hamada First Junior High School, designed to admit daylight into the wide interior—an elegant solution to the problem of lighting deep, column-free spaces before electric illumination became common.
• The overall volume, which remains very close to what soldiers of the Taisho era would have known, even after its conversion to a school gymnasium.

Nearby at Hamada First Junior High School stands a companion building, the former drill hall of the same regiment, dating from 1898 (Meiji 31). Together the two buildings form a rare surviving pair, allowing visitors to compare Meiji-era and Taisho-era versions of the same building type from the same regiment.

Visiting Information

Because the gymnasium remains in daily use as a school facility, the interior is not generally open to the public. Visitors are welcome, however, to view the building from the adjacent prefectural road, where its brick walls and gabled profile are clearly visible. The building sits prominently along the roadside and has long been a familiar landmark to local residents and passing travelers alike.

Please observe the following courtesies during your visit:

• Admire the building from public roads or designated viewing areas, and avoid entering school grounds without permission.
• Refrain from photographing students or school activities.
• Keep noise to a minimum, particularly during school hours on weekdays.
• For research or group visits that require closer access, inquire in advance through the school or the Hamada City Cultural Promotion Division.

The site can also be combined with a visit to a small memorial stone inscribed "Site of the 21st Infantry Regiment" (Hohei Dai Nijūichi Rentai Ato), which stands on the grounds of the former regimental compound and quietly commemorates the garrison's half-century of history.

Nearby Attractions

A visit to this cultural property pairs naturally with several other highlights of the Hamada area:

• Hamada Castle Ruins: A designated important cultural property of Shimane Prefecture, first built in 1620 and fallen to the Chōshū army in 1866 during the end of the Edo period. Today the ruins are celebrated as a cherry blossom viewing spot.
• Shimane Aquarium Aquas: One of the largest aquariums in the Chūgoku–Shikoku region, famous for beluga whales performing the "Happy Bubble Ring" and a 1,000-ton tank filled with sharks and rays.
• Iwami Tatamigaura: A dramatic coastal rock formation shaped by geological uplift, designated a national natural monument and a popular geology and scenery spot.
• Michi-no-Eki Yūhi Park Hamada: A roadside station famed for sunset views over the Sea of Japan, offering fresh local seafood and occasional performances of Iwami Kagura, the region's beloved masked dance theatre.
• Hamada First Junior High School Indoor Gymnasium: The sister covered drill hall from 1898, also a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property, viewable from outside nearby.