A Clock Tower Built to Make Two Schools Feel Like One
The former Main Building of the First Higher School, now the College of Arts and Sciences Building 1 at the University of Tokyo (東京大学教養学部旧第一高等学校本館（時計台）, known simply as the Tokeidai or clock tower), stands at the centre of the Komaba I campus in Meguro Ward, Tokyo, was completed in 1933 and was entered on Japan's register of Tangible Cultural Properties on 26 September 2000.
It was not built for the University of Tokyo. It was built for the First Higher School, the elite preparatory institution whose graduates fed almost automatically into Tokyo Imperial University, and which occupied this site after an exchange of land with the university's agriculture faculty. Uchida Yoshikazu, the architect responsible for rebuilding the Hongo campus after the 1923 earthquake, was given the commission, and the university's own account describes his approach in unusually explicit terms: he designed the building so that the university and the First Higher School could feel like a single body.
The method was architectural quotation. Anyone who has stood in front of Yasuda Auditorium in Hongo will recognise this building immediately: the same scratch tile, the same vertical emphasis, the same manner of setting a tower above a symmetrical block. Two campuses eight kilometres apart were tied together by making their principal buildings rhyme.
Construction ran from August 1931 to July 1933. The design is credited to Uchida together with Shimizu Yukishige, with Zenitaka-gumi as contractor.
Gothic Below, Romanesque in the Arches
The plan is a square ring wrapped around a courtyard. The cladding is scratch tile, the finish with fine parallel grooves drawn through the surface before firing that was fashionable in Japan in the early Showa years and that Uchida used so consistently that the manner became known as Uchida Gothic.
The arches are the departure. Writers on the Komaba campus have observed that while the building is Gothic in its general vocabulary, the arch portions bring in Romanesque forms, meaning rounded rather than pointed. Look at the entrance and then think of the pointed arcade at the Faculty of Letters and Law buildings in Hongo, and the difference is immediate. Uchida moved between the two idioms deliberately.
The structural record needs a note. The Agency for Cultural Affairs registers the structure as reinforced concrete, three storeys, building area 2,464 square metres, with a rooftop tower. The explanatory text attached to the same entry describes a square ring plan in scratch tile with a steel-reinforced concrete structure of two storeys and a part of three. The two descriptions disagree on both material and storey count, and since both come from the same authority the difference cannot be resolved by preferring one source over another. The registered field is the figure of record.
The building carries the criterion of being a model of design. Registration, introduced in 1996, is the lighter of Japan's two heritage systems: the owner notifies the government before substantial alteration, and the structure carries on in service. This one holds classrooms used by first and second year undergraduates, which is about as ordinary a use as a registered property can have.
The wartime detail is worth recording. During the Second World War, First Higher School pupils appointed as air defence officers kept watch for aircraft from the clock tower.
Komaba I, and What Else Is There
The campus entrance is directly opposite Komaba-todaimae station on the Keio Inokashira line, which puts the clock tower perhaps ninety seconds from the ticket gate. It faces you as you come through the campus gate, framing the axis in the way the building was composed to do.
Komaba I operates under a different visitor regime from Hongo. Enquiries about visits go to the College of Arts and Sciences directly rather than to the central university office, and anyone planning a group visit should contact that office in advance. The interior of Building 1 is a working teaching facility and is not open for general viewing.
The building the general public can enter is a short walk away. Turn right from in front of the clock tower and the Komaba Museum occupies what was built in 1935 as the First Higher School library. Its ground-floor gallery, high-ceilinged and generously proportioned, holds a replica of Marcel Duchamp's Large Glass produced in collaboration with Tama Art University and completed in 1980. The museum runs three or four special exhibitions a year, and it is the most reliable way to get inside a building of this campus generation.
Two more pieces of the First Higher School survive nearby. Lecture Room 900, completed in 1938, was the school's ethics hall and is now the largest teaching room of the College of Arts and Sciences with 656 seats. The former alumni hall of 1937 has become a French restaurant, Levez son verre Komaba, open to the public.
The school these buildings were made for no longer exists. The College of Arts and Sciences was established at Komaba in 1949, and the First Higher School was abolished in March 1950. Among the trees around Building 1 are Western cypress and olive, both emblems of the vanished school.
- 📍 Plan Your Visit to Tokyo
- Find tours, activities & transport passes near Former Main Building of the First Higher School, College of Arts and Sciences, the University of Tokyo (the Clock Tower)
- [ Tokyo Skytree Asakusa & teamLab Experiences ]
Q&A
- Can visitors enter the clock tower building at the University of Tokyo's Komaba campus?
- The building is a working teaching facility of the College of Arts and Sciences and is not open for general interior viewing. The exterior can be seen from the campus grounds. Komaba I handles visitor enquiries through the College of Arts and Sciences directly rather than the university's central visitor desk, and group visits should be arranged in advance.
- Why does the Komaba clock tower look so much like Yasuda Auditorium?
- Both were designed by Uchida Yoshikazu, and the resemblance is intentional. The university's account states that Uchida designed the Komaba building so that Tokyo Imperial University and the First Higher School could feel like a single institution, using the same scratch tile, vertical emphasis and tower-over-symmetrical-block composition.
- What was the First Higher School, and does it still exist?
- It was an elite preparatory school whose graduates progressed to Tokyo Imperial University. It moved to the Komaba site following a land exchange with the university's agriculture faculty. The College of Arts and Sciences was established here in 1949 and the First Higher School was abolished in March 1950, so the institution the building was made for no longer exists.
- Is there any building on the Komaba campus that visitors can go inside?
- Yes, the Komaba Museum, housed in the 1935 First Higher School library a short walk from the clock tower. It runs three or four special exhibitions a year and its ground-floor gallery holds a replica of Marcel Duchamp's Large Glass completed in 1980. Check its website for current opening hours and exhibitions.
- How do I reach the Komaba clock tower from central Tokyo?
- Take the Keio Inokashira line to Komaba-todaimae station, one stop from Shibuya. The campus entrance is directly opposite the station and the clock tower faces you as you enter, roughly ninety seconds from the ticket gate.
Basic Information
| Name | Former Main Building of the First Higher School (Clock Tower), College of Arts and Sciences, the University of Tokyo / 東京大学教養学部旧第一高等学校本館（時計台） |
|---|---|
| Location | 3-8 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (building); registration number 13-0089; criterion: a model of design |
| Year Designated | Registered 26 September 2000; gazetted 11 October 2000 |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Reinforced concrete, three storeys with rooftop tower; building area 2,464 m² |
| Owner | The University of Tokyo |
| Public Access | Exterior viewable from campus grounds; interior closed as a working teaching building; visitor enquiries through the College of Arts and Sciences; no admission fee |
References
- National Database of Designated Cultural Properties, Agency for Cultural Affairs — Former Main Building of the First Higher School (Clock Tower)
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00001842
- Cultural Heritage Online — Former Main Building of the First Higher School (Clock Tower)
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/167152
- The University of Tokyo — Registered Tangible Cultural Properties
- https://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/ja/about/campus-guide/b07_04_b.html
- Komaba Museum, the University of Tokyo
- https://museum.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp/
- College of Arts and Sciences — Enquiries about Visiting the Komaba I Campus
- https://www.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp/info/about/contact/contact2/index.html
- University of Tokyo Press — Special Site for "Komaba Style at the University of Tokyo"
- https://www.utp.or.jp/special/komabastyle/
Last verified: 2026.07.29