Pop-up card of Kamakura Church

2025-03-25

Kamakura Church was also destroyed in the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, and a new building was built afterwards.

This is what the church looks like today.
The pop-up card of Kamakura Church was made more than 10 years ago, but it was slightly modified this time.

Then there was no tower when the construction was completed, and the tower was added in 1985 (or the following year?), so I also made a card before the tower was added.
This is the church before it was extended.
I found a photo of the church before the extension of the tower, so I made a card of it.

I created the card imagining that a gently sloping roof had been hung over the rooftop area.
I also thought that a cross might have been attached to it because, but I couldn’t see it on the photo, so I didn’t add the cross to the card.

In the 1930 publication 'The Great Kamakura Earthquake’, I found a description of the damage to Kamakura Church during the Great Kanto Earthquake.

According to the book, the Japan Methodist Kamakura Church (the name of the church at that time), the church building and the parsonage were completely destroyed, and only the Women Project Hall narrowly escaped collapse. Fortunately, no one was killed.
On 3 September 1923, a temporary hut was built to serve as a shelter, and on 9 September a Sunday school service was held and sermons were preached. The donation at that time was given to the Kamakura Town as relief money for the victims.
At the end of October, a building was erected and some tents was erected to start a nursery and kindergarten. In November, a temporary parsonage was built; in February 1924, the Women Project Hall was restored; and a new building was constructed for the housekeeping hall and teacher rest hall.

In March 1926, the groundbreaking ceremony for the church building was held and the reinforced concrete building was completed at the end of September.

The church was designed by Yoshitake Choichi (1879-1953).
Born in Yamaguchi Prefecture, he studied architecture in the USA for seven years. He returned to Japan in 1909 and was commissioned by the Ministry of the Navy, and the following year became head of the architecture department of Murai Bank. In 1913, he opened his own design office and designed the head and branches of Murai Bank, as well as churches such as Ginza Church and Ando Memorial Church (Minato Ward, Tokyo).