Ochanomizu University Main Building

What Is the Ochanomizu University Main Building?

The Ochanomizu University Main Building (お茶の水女子大学本館) is a three-storey reinforced concrete school building completed in 1932 on the Ochanomizu University campus in Otsuka, Bunkyo City, Tokyo, and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2008.

It opened as the main building of the Tokyo Women's Higher Normal School, which had lost its Yushima campus to the fires of the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake, and it was the first permanent building raised on the new Otsuka site. Work began on January 9, 1931, and was finished on August 31, 1932. University records put the construction period at 600 days and the labor at 55,032 worker-days.

The plan is a U shape with a building area of 2,990 square meters. A long front faces the main gate, and two wings reach back to enclose a courtyard where the Auditorium (Kiindo) stands, linked to the central entrance by a corridor. The Ochanomizu University Main Building still houses administrative offices and classrooms, and its ground floor holds the university's History Museum.

A Model of Post-Earthquake School Architecture

The Agency for Cultural Affairs registered the Ochanomizu University Main Building as a work that "sets a model for design" and describes it as a fine example of the school buildings put up after the earthquake. Fireproof concrete was the obvious answer to 1923. For the skin, the designers chose Scratch tile, a brown tile scored with fine grooves that was in fashion in the early Showa era; because each piece was handmade, the color varies slightly from tile to tile.

The design team belonged to the architecture section of the Ministry of Education: section chief Shibagaki Teitaro, design head Takahashi Riichiro and designer Tanaka Tokuji. Shimizu-gumi built it. The team borrowed Art Deco motifs and used materials that were new at the time, including fabric-textured tiles and a stone finish called Fukokuseki.

Inside, a reception room for distinguished guests was used when the empress or members of the imperial family came to the school, and it carries the richest decoration in the building. A school training women teachers at the highest level was expected to look the part.

Between September 2003 and September 2006 the whole Ochanomizu University Main Building, the Auditorium included, was renovated. The exterior was preserved and parts of the interior were returned to their 1932 appearance before the registration that followed.

What to Look For at the Ochanomizu University Main Building

The White Relief Panel and the Carriage Porch

Walking in from the main gate, you notice that only the center of the brown facade is white. As the Agency's description points out, the decoration is concentrated around the entrance under its deep canopy, where plant reliefs of grape clusters, leaves and tendrils stand out against the pale wall. The composition is symmetrical, and the depth of the carving only becomes clear up close.

The carriage porch sweeps out in a wide curve. The front doors, brass hinges and handles included, are said to be almost exactly as they were in 1932, and even the cast-iron ventilation grilles have a clean early Showa design.

Entrance Hall and Staircases

The entrance hall floor is a checkerboard of white and black marble under a ceiling with shallow arches. The stained glass uses a geometric pattern of squares, and most of the panes are original. Black cast-iron balusters line the central staircase, and another stair is walled with fabric-textured tiles that look as if gauze had been pressed into the clay. Arched decorative beams survive in several places and show the Art Deco side of the design most plainly.

The Mantelpiece in Room 121

Room 121, facing the courtyard, was once a classroom for Western etiquette. Its marble mantelpiece has survived untouched since 1932. The room now serves as a History Museum gallery, and among the spaces visitors can enter on open days it gives the clearest sense of the original interior of the Ochanomizu University Main Building.

Visiting the Ochanomizu University Main Building

Once you have completed the entry procedure at the main gate, the exterior of the Ochanomizu University Main Building can be viewed from outside. The relief panel is best seen straight ahead on the path from the gate. Outdoor photography is allowed, but keep students out of the frame.

The interior spaces open to visitors are the History Museum rooms on the ground floor (Rooms 121 and 136). Admission is free. On special open days no booking is needed; on other days, apply at least 2 weeks ahead for a guided visit between 9:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. on a weekday. The former reception room, now a university meeting room, is closed, and the tiered lecture room cannot be entered during classes. Directions and entry conditions for the campus are on the Ochanomizu University page.