United Church of Christ in Japan Hongo Central Church

About United Church of Christ in Japan Hongo Central Church

United Church of Christ in Japan Hongo Central Church (日本基督教団本郷中央教会, Nihon Kirisuto Kyōdan Hongō Chūō Kyōkai) is a reinforced concrete church built in 1929 on Kasuga-dori in Hongo, Bunkyo City, Tokyo, and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 1998. The white building rises 3 storeys plus a tower, with a square tower standing at its northeast corner.

The congregation was founded in 1890 by the Canadian Methodist missionary Charles S. Eby, under the name Chūō Kaidō, the Central Tabernacle. By the church's own account, Eby chose Hongo for its closeness to the Imperial University and the First Higher School, and built a timber hall under a great tent-shaped roof. The Agency for Cultural Affairs credits that first building to Itō Tamekichi.

Fire after the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 destroyed the original hall. The present church is its post-earthquake replacement. The Agency records the design as the work of Kawasaki Shinobu, based on an original scheme by Vogel, with construction by the Tsuji firm. It is reinforced concrete, 3 storeys with a rooftop tower, covering 517 square meters.

Why Hongo Central Church Is Registered

Hongo Central Church was registered on December 11, 1998, under number 13-0044.

The Agency singles out two things: a Gothic church that puts a kindergarten on the ground floor and the sanctuary above it, and the weighty corner tower. The kindergarten itself dates from 1924, the year after the earthquake, when the church opened it as a safe place for children in a burned-out city. It still operates as Chūō Kaidō Kindergarten. Stacking school and sanctuary in one building records very directly what a city church took on after the disaster.

On March 10, 1945, the firebombing of Tokyo leveled the surrounding streets. Neighbors who had taken shelter inside put out the flames that blew in through broken windows, and the building survived. The church history says it then housed 700 people who had lost their homes.

What to Look For

For the full view, cross to the far side of Kasuga-dori. From there you can take in the 3-storey front and the northeast tower together. Above the entrance, characters reading right to left spell 中央會堂, the church's founding name.

The exterior ornament is restrained, but pointed openings and the finish at the top of the tower keep the Gothic vocabulary. The white walls were repainted during 3 years of repairs that began in 2017.

The sanctuary on the 2nd floor rises through 2 levels. In its early years the church was known for the first pipe organ installed in Japan, set up by Edward Gauntlett and lost in the 1923 fire. In 2016 an organ built by the British firm Conacher, previously used in a church in Wales, was fitted into the former projection room at the back.

Visiting United Church of Christ in Japan Hongo Central Church

United Church of Christ in Japan Hongo Central Church is an active congregation, with no sightseeing hours or admission fee. The exterior can be seen from the Kasuga-dori sidewalk at any time.

Sunday worship starts at 10:30 a.m. and lasts about an hour; the church suggests arriving 10 minutes early. Enter by the front door and take the stairs on the left to the reception desk on the 2nd floor. There is also an elevator. The church does not rent out its sanctuary to the public.

Keep photography to the exterior from the public road and ask before shooting inside. The ground floor is a kindergarten, so be considerate at drop-off and pick-up times on weekdays.

According to the church, it is 3 minutes on foot from Hongo-sanchome Station on the Toei Oedo Line and 5 minutes from the Tokyo Metro Marunouchi Line platforms of the same station. The building stands on the north side of Kasuga-dori as the road descends toward Yushima and Ueno.