Former administration building of Aida Junior High School
The north-eastern part of Matsumoto City was “Shiga Village" before it was merged with Matsumoto City in 2005.
There is a wooden junior high school building there that is no longer in use, so I went to see it the other day.
I visited the school in the evening, so please forgive me if the colors in the photos give a lonely impression.
The building is on the right as we walk up the hill.
A monument stands in front of the school building.
The inscription reads: ‘The site of Shiga Village Aida School, where more than 6,200 students studied over the past 50 years, we pray for the development and enrichment of the alma mater’. So this school building was the Aida Junior High School building.
The monument was installed to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the school, and the year 2002 is inscribed on the reverse side.
Two aerial photographs show the school building.
On the left is taken in 1976, when the school building was in use.
Aida Junior High School moved to a newly built building on a different site in 2001, so this school building has not been used since then.
This means that the monument was erected after the move to the new school building.
The picture on the right shows the situation in 2011. Two gateball halls were built on the school site in 2004.
Note that in this photo, the former first school building still remains, but as of 2025 it no longer exists.
All that remains now is the former administration building, called as the third school building.
This was built in 1953, but not all of the school buildings were built in the same year, so let’s write about the history of the school building construction.
First of all, about Shiga Village, it did not yet exist immediately in 1945, after the end of the World War II.
There were four villages – Nishikibe, Nakagawa, Aida and Gojo.
In 1947, a new compulsory junior high school was established. Each village therefore established a junior high school attached to its elementary school.
In Aida village, a new school building was built as junior high school that year.
However, it was difficult for each village to build its own school building, so in 1950 the four villages mentioned above got together and set up a council to build a junior high school in cooperation.
The four villages decided to form an association to establish a junior high school, and the association-run Aida Junior High School opened in April 1953.
The Aida village had built its own school building, which was relocated on the site and it was called the second school building. The first school building was newly constructed by April, and these two buildings were used to open the school.
The third school building, the administration building, was built after the school opened. It was completed in August 1953.
The ground floor of this building housed the staff room, headmaster’s office, office and infirmary, while the second floor housed the Japanese and Western dressmaking rooms. (However, the school building layout I have checked is from 1982, so it is possible that the names of the classrooms may have been different when construction was completed.)
The gymnasium and music room were completed in February 1954.
In 1955, four villages – Nishikibe, Nakagawa, Aida and Gojo – merged to form the new village of Shiga.
The name of the school became Shiga Village Aida Junior High School.
Construction of the fourth school building began that year and was completed in June 1956.
According to documents from 1982, the fourth school building was the classroom for Grade 2, while the first school building was for Grades 1 and 3. The second school building housed the cooking room and library.
Now let’s look around the school building.
The south side of the school building is now a car park, but the fourth school building used to stand here.
South side of the administration building. Partially mortared.
The fourth school building was mortared when it was completed, so perhaps it was partially mortared when the fourth school building was newly built. It was the ground floor on the left in this photo that was connected to the fourth school building by a corridor.
The south side of the school building was fitted with aluminium sashes in 1976.
Approached the door of that crossing corridor. This is the part that still has wooden framed doors instead of sashes. It is likely that they did not replace it with a sash as it was not directly exposed to the wind and rain due to the location of the corridor.
I moved to the east side of the school building. The part protruding from the wall on the right is the staff toilet.
The roof is damaged. In this condition, it might have leaked. The building is probably not likely to be used again, so they may intend to leave it to decay.
North side of the building. The external walls are quite damaged and the external staircase is rusting. Trees have grown and are entangled in that staircase.
This is the main entrance. The small window on the right is the office.
The glass door is not from the time it was built. The building was converted to aluminium sashes in 1976 and 1980, so the front door was probably changed at either of those dates.
Looked inside through the glass of the main entrance. It has probably been left unattended for many years. And some of the sashes on the left side have come off.
But the ceiling in the corridor has a boat-bottom ceiling, which is kind of cool, isn’t it?
(Enlarged and brightened photo above)
Finally, from the front.
From this view, the school building is tasteful, although the walls are peeling.
I suspect there is little chance of it being used in the future, but I wonder how long it will maintain this shape.
[Reference] (written in Japanese)
“Aida Junior High School Thirty Years‘ History" (Aida Junior High School Thirty Years’ History Editorial Committee / Aida Junior High School / 1982)
“Shiga Village Commemorative" (Shiga Village / 2005)