Ochanomizu University Auditorium

What Is the Ochanomizu University Auditorium?

The Ochanomizu University Auditorium (お茶の水女子大学講堂) is a two-storey steel-framed reinforced concrete hall built in 1932 in the courtyard of the Main Building on the Ochanomizu University campus in Otsuka, Bunkyo City, Tokyo, and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2008.

On campus it goes by the name Kiindo (徽音堂). Planned together with the Main Building as part of the school's rebuilding after the Great Kanto Earthquake, it was finished in the same year. The building area is 1,018 square meters. You reach it by walking straight through the central entrance of the Main Building, whose U-shaped wings surround the hall on three sides.

The Ochanomizu University Auditorium is still used for ceremonies and events on campus. Its renovation, carried out together with that of the Main Building, was completed in 2006.

The Name Kiindo and Why the Auditorium Was Registered

According to the university's History Museum, the word kiin comes from a Chinese classical story about people who faithfully carried on the virtues of those before them and spread words of virtue in turn. When the hall was completed, Princess Higashifushimi Kaneko presented a framed inscription of the name in her own brushwork, and that plaque still hangs at the front of the Ochanomizu University Auditorium.

The name has traveled beyond the building. The university festival held every November is called the Kiin Festival because the first one, in 1950, took place in this hall.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs registered the Ochanomizu University Auditorium as a work that "sets a model for design." Its description notes that the walls are clad entirely in Scratch tile above a dado of Mannari granite, matching the Main Building so the two read as one design. On the upper floor, however, the Auditorium has a continuous row of paired arched windows that give it a gentler face than its neighbor. Same materials, different window shapes, and the character of each building changes.

What to Look For at the Ochanomizu University Auditorium

From the outside, the first thing to catch the eye is the row of arched windows on the upper floor, set in pairs and repeated along the wall. Compare it with the front of the Main Building and the reason the Auditorium looks softer becomes obvious. The same granite dado runs along the base, giving a firm line where the brown tile ends.

Inside, the ceiling rises in a shallow arch, and the decorative transoms and light covers are original. The plaque reading Kiindo at the front of the hall has been there since the building was completed in 1932.

Because it stands within the courtyard, the Ochanomizu University Auditorium is almost entirely hidden behind the Main Building when seen from the main gate. Its full form only appears once you have passed through the central entrance.

Visiting the Ochanomizu University Auditorium

The interior of the Ochanomizu University Auditorium is not open to the general public. The way in is to attend a public lecture, concert, festival or other event held in the hall, following the entry instructions issued by the university or the organizer for that occasion.

The entrance is at the end of the corridor beyond the Main Building's central doors. Photography rules at events depend on the organizer, so check at the venue. Directions and campus entry conditions are on the Ochanomizu University page.