United Church of Christ in Japan Nezu Church

About the Chapel of United Church of Christ in Japan Nezu Church

United Church of Christ in Japan Nezu Church (日本基督教団根津教会) is a single-storey wooden chapel in Nezu, Bunkyo City, Tokyo, said to have been built in 1919 and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2001. The national database lists it under the church's name; the brick gate and wall on the same lot are a separate entry.

It is timber, one storey, with a tiled roof partly covered in metal sheet, and a building area of 185 square meters. The roof is a simple gable of the Kirizuma-zukuri type and the walls are horizontal clapboard, the Shitami-itabari finish common in Western-style wooden buildings of the period. The Agency dates it to the middle of the Taishō era; 1919 is the church's own date.

An Off-Center Plan

The chapel of United Church of Christ in Japan Nezu Church was registered on August 28, 2001, under number 13-0104.

The first thing the Agency notes is the plan. The entrance is in the northwest corner and the chancel in the northeast corner. Most churches line up door and altar on a single axis; here both are pulled to the same side of the building. On a lane in a crowded gate town, where the chapel had to fill its lot, it reads like a practical answer to a narrow frontage.

The second is the exterior: a gable pierced with pointed-arch windows, and a square tower with a sharp spire over the entrance, which the Agency calls a landmark for the area. Wooden churches of the Taishō era that made it through both the earthquake and the war in central Tokyo are rare.

What to Look For

From the lane you first see the white clapboard gable. The windows end in pointed arches, which give a small timber building a Gothic accent.

Beside the gable, at the northwest corner, is the entrance, and above it the tower. Its thin pointed roof is the only part of the single-storey chapel that climbs above the eaves, and because it sits right over the door it doubles as a sign for the way in.

Inside, notice that the chancel sits in the northeast corner. The off-center plan only really registers once you are in the room. Attending worship lets you see how a service unfolds in it.

Visiting the Chapel

The interior of United Church of Christ in Japan Nezu Church is not open for sightseeing. The church asks architecture visitors to look from outside and says the chapel cannot be toured during services or meetings. No reservation is needed to attend worship.

The exterior can be seen from the public road. Keep photography to the street and do not block the lane. Directions and notes on the neighborhood are on the group page for Nezu Church.