Former Mutsuzawa School Building

A Meiji Schoolhouse in the Fujimura Style

The Former Mutsuzawa School Building (旧睦沢学校校舎) is a pseudo-Western school building of 1875 in Kitaguchi, Kofu City, Yamanashi Prefecture, and was designated an Important Cultural Property on June 15, 1967 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency records a two-storey timber building with a central tower and a pantiled roof, with a building area of 189.2 square metres; designation number 01655.

A Schoolhouse Moved Twice

The Former Mutsuzawa School Building was built in 1875 as an elementary school in what was Shikishima Town, Nakakoma District, and is counted the finest of the Western-style buildings put up under Governor Fujimura (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Yamanashi Prefecture says it stood in the former Mutsuzawa village, now part of Kai City, was completed in 1876, served as a school until March 1957 and then as a community hall.

Taken down to make way for a school extension, it was rebuilt in 1966 in the grounds of Takeda Shrine as the Kofu City Fujimura Memorial Museum, and in 2010 it was moved again to its present site north of Kofu Station for repair and wider use (Yamanashi Prefecture). Designed and built by a master carpenter of the Shimoyama school from Minobu, it is a leading example of a Western building made with traditional Japanese timber skills.

Why It Is an Important Cultural Property

The Agency describes it as the finest of the Western-style buildings put up by Governor Fujimura. Yamanashi Prefecture says it was designated as a leading pseudo-Western building raised with native timber techniques, a style known locally as Fujimura-style architecture (Yamanashi Tourism Organization).

What to Look For

Look for the central tower and the windows, framed in black plaster with both glazed and louvred shutters (Agency for Cultural Affairs; Yamanashi Tourism Organization). A classroom of the period is recreated inside.

Visiting

It is open as the Kofu City Fujimura Memorial Museum. According to the Yamanashi Tourism Organization, it is 3 minutes on foot from JR Kofu Station and opens from 9:00 to 17:00, closed on Mondays, the day after national holidays and over the New Year (information as of September 2024).