University of Tokyo Law and Letters Building 1

A Building with a Church-Like Arcade

The University of Tokyo Law and Letters Building 1 (東京大学法文１号館) is a reinforced concrete teaching building completed in 1935 on the Hongo campus of the University of Tokyo in Bunkyo City, Tokyo, which in 1998 was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs records three storeys, part four, and a building area of 2695 square metres, registered as a model of design, designed by Uchida Yoshikazu.

The university notes that it was built under the earthquake reconstruction plan: the western part, now used by the Faculty of Letters, was finished in February 1929 and the whole in February 1935.

Structure and Design

The Agency places it along the east-west axis between the main gate and the Great Hall. On the ground floor a Gothic arcade, recalling the interior of a three-aisled church, spans a north-south passage, and the finials on the entrance porch were reused from an earlier building.

The university notes that pointed arches and crockets from the old Law and Letters College and old library were used on the entrance porch, carrying on the design of the earlier campus. The Gothic arcade is a Hongo tradition going back to Josiah Conder.

What to Look For

Walk through the ground-floor arcade to experience its church-like space. The pointed arches and crockets of the entrance porch carry designs from the buildings lost in the earthquake.

The university notes that a rooftop storey with quarter-circle vaults, designed by Koyama Hisao, was added to Law and Letters Buildings 1 and 2 as they grew crowded after the war, with the first phase finished in 1976 and the whole in 1981.

Visiting

Faculty buildings are generally closed to visitors, so view the exterior from the campus grounds. The ground-floor arcade is a campus passage and can be walked through.

Visiting rules and directions for the campus are on the University of Tokyo Hongo Campus group page.