Miyagi Michio Memorial Hall Kengyo no Ma

The Study of a Koto Master

The Miyagi Michio Memorial Hall Kengyo no Ma (宮城道雄記念館検校の間) is a study of 1948 in Nakacho, Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on July 25, 2011 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency records a single-storey timber building with a tiled roof and a building area of 21 square metres, dated 1948 and noted as moved in 1950 and 1955; registration number 13-0278.

A Small Study with a Six-Mat Room

The Kengyo no Ma stands in the north-west corner of the grounds of the Miyagi Michio Memorial Hall, a small building of 21 square metres (Agency for Cultural Affairs). It has a hipped roof of pantiles and deep eaves on the east and south that cast the walls in shadow.

The six-mat main room has an alcove in the middle of the west wall, flanked by a biwa alcove and staggered shelves (Agency for Cultural Affairs). According to GO TOKYO, the Tokyo tourism site, Miyagi Michio lost his sight at eight and invented an 80-string koto; this was his study.

Why It Was Registered

The Agency calls it an elegant study of refined design and registered it as a model of design.

What to Look For

Look for the deep eaves and the alcove flanked by a biwa alcove and staggered shelves (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

Visiting

It belongs to the Miyagi Michio Memorial Museum Foundation (Agency for Cultural Affairs). GO TOKYO (updated July 2024) lists the museum as closed, and no date for reopening was found.