The Third Clock Tower, and the Least Gothic of Them
Building 13 of the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Tokyo, formerly the Main Building of the Aeronautical Research Institute of Tokyo Imperial University (東京大学先端科学技術研究センター十三号館（旧東京帝国大学航空研究所本館）), stands on the Komaba II campus in Meguro Ward, Tokyo, was completed in 1929 and was entered on Japan's register of Tangible Cultural Properties on 26 September 2000.
The University of Tokyo has three clock towers: Yasuda Auditorium in Hongo, the former First Higher School main building on the Komaba I campus, and this one. All three were designed by Uchida Yoshikazu, who held a professorship in architecture while running the university's building office and leading the reconstruction that followed the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. Set the three side by side and this is the outlier.
The institute it was built for had been at Etchujima, on the eastern flats of Tokyo, and moved to Komaba after the earthquake. Aeronautical research in Japan in the 1920s was expanding quickly and the new site needed a headquarters that could take a shock. Fire resistance and earthquake resistance shaped the specification, which is why the structure is steel-reinforced concrete, with steel sections embedded in the concrete frame, faced in scratch tile. The design is credited to Uchida with Shimizu Yukishige; Okura Doboku carried out the construction.
Expressionism in Concrete
What separates this building from the other two towers is where its forms come from. Yasuda Auditorium and the Komaba I main building are Gothic in vocabulary. This one is Expressionist.
Expressionism in architecture emerged in Germany after the First World War, reached Japan towards the end of the Taisho era, and persisted into the early Showa years. Its instincts run towards distorted proportion, mass treated as though it were plastic, and forms that seem to have been pressed or squeezed into shape. Two features here declare the influence plainly. The tower narrows slightly towards its upper part, which gives it a compressed, top-heavy silhouette quite unlike the straight rise of the Hongo tower. At the ground-floor entrance stand stone columns so thick that they read as out of proportion with everything above, and that deliberate imbalance is an Expressionist device rather than a structural necessity.
Then there are the bands. Nine horizontal courses run around the entire building, and the uppermost level is treated as a pattern of vertical stripes. The result is a facade organised by two competing directions, horizontal wrapping below, vertical striping above, which is a composition no Gothic-derived building on either campus attempts.
The registered structure is steel-reinforced concrete, three storeys, building area 735 square metres, with a rooftop tower. The Agency for Cultural Affairs explanatory text adds a basement, describing three storeys above ground and one below. The criterion applied at registration was that the building is a model of design.
Registration is the lighter of Japan's two heritage systems, established in 1996 for buildings of roughly fifty years or more. The owner notifies the government before substantial alteration and the building otherwise continues in service. This one continues to house research, its role changed from aeronautics to the broad advanced science and technology remit of the present centre, but its function as a working laboratory building unbroken since 1929.
The Hardest of the Nine to See
Anyone planning to photograph the University of Tokyo's registered buildings should know that this one demands the most planning. The Komaba II campus, formally the Komaba Research Campus and shared with the Institute of Industrial Science, is not open to the general public except during its annual open-campus event. That is a firm restriction rather than a discouragement, and turning up at the gate on an ordinary weekday will not work.
The open-campus event, the Komaba Research Campus Open House, runs once a year and typically over two days in late spring or early summer. Laboratories that are closed the rest of the year admit visitors, lectures and demonstrations are held, and advance online registration is encouraged to speed entry. Dates shift from year to year, so check the event's own site well ahead. That event is the practical answer to the question of how to see this building at close range.
Outside those days, partial views are possible from the surrounding streets. The campus sits between Komaba-todaimae station on the Keio Inokashira line and Yoyogi-uehara on the Chiyoda subway line, in a quiet residential district, and the tower is visible above the boundary from several points along the perimeter. It is a limited view and worth being realistic about.
The neighbourhood compensates. The Japan Folk Crafts Museum stands close by, Komaba Park with the former Maeda family residence is a short walk, and the Museum of Modern Japanese Literature is in the same park. Any of these can be combined with a walk past the campus perimeter, and all are open to the public on their own schedules. Someone travelling out to Komaba specifically for architecture would do better to spend most of the day on the Komaba I campus, where the clock tower of 1933 and the Komaba Museum are freely reachable, and treat this building as a target for the open-campus weekend.
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Q&A
- Can visitors see Building 13 of the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology up close?
- Only during the annual Komaba Research Campus Open House. The Komaba II campus is not open to the general public at other times, so a weekday visit to the gate will not gain entry. Partial views of the tower are possible from streets around the campus perimeter.
- What was the Aeronautical Research Institute, and why did it move to Komaba?
- It was the aeronautics research organisation of Tokyo Imperial University, previously located at Etchujima in eastern Tokyo. It relocated to Komaba after the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, and this building was erected in 1929 as its central facility, specified for fire and earthquake resistance.
- How does Building 13 differ from the University of Tokyo's other two clock towers?
- All three were designed by Uchida Yoshikazu, but Yasuda Auditorium and the Komaba I main building draw on Gothic forms while this one is Expressionist. Its tower narrows towards the top, the ground-floor entrance carries stone columns of deliberately disproportionate thickness, and nine horizontal bands wrap the building with the uppermost level treated as vertical striping.
- What is the registered structure of Building 13, and what year was it registered?
- Steel-reinforced concrete, three storeys with a rooftop tower, building area 735 square metres; the Agency's explanatory note adds a basement level. It was registered as a Tangible Cultural Property on 26 September 2000 and gazetted on 11 October, under registration number 13-0088.
- What else is worth visiting near the Komaba II campus?
- The Japan Folk Crafts Museum is close by, and Komaba Park nearby holds both the former Maeda family residence and the Museum of Modern Japanese Literature. The Komaba I campus with its 1933 clock tower and the Komaba Museum is also within walking distance and is far easier to enter.
Basic Information
| Name | Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology Building 13 (former Main Building of the Aeronautical Research Institute, Tokyo Imperial University) / 東京大学先端科学技術研究センター十三号館（旧東京帝国大学航空研究所本館） |
|---|---|
| Location | 4-5 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (building); registration number 13-0088; criterion: a model of design |
| Year Designated | Registered 26 September 2000; gazetted 11 October 2000 |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Steel-reinforced concrete, three storeys with rooftop tower; building area 735 m² |
| Owner | The University of Tokyo |
| Public Access | Komaba II campus closed to the general public except during the annual Komaba Research Campus Open House; partial exterior views from surrounding streets |
References
- National Database of Designated Cultural Properties, Agency for Cultural Affairs — Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology Building 13
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00001762
- Cultural Heritage Online — Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology Building 13
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/167072
- The University of Tokyo — Registered Tangible Cultural Properties
- https://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/ja/about/campus-guide/b07_04_b.html
- Komaba Research Campus Open House
- https://komaba-oh.jp/
- Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology — Access
- https://www.rcast.u-tokyo.ac.jp/ja/access.html
- The University of Tokyo — Visiting the Campuses
- https://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/ja/about/campus-guide/public02_05.html
Last verified: 2026.07.29