Former Ibaraki Prefectural Commercial School Entrance
This building stands at the eastern edge of the grounds of Ibaraki Prefectural Mito Commercial High School. It preserves the entrance section of the old school building.
The school was founded in 1902 as the Ibaraki Prefectural Commercial School. Initially using private homes as classrooms, construction of a school building began the following year. By December 1903, they moved into temporary classrooms created by partitioning the completed gymnasium.
The main school building was completed in April 1904. The building pictured above is part of that structure.
The building was designed by Komagine Kinji (1877-1919). He graduated early from Tokyo Imperial University and joined the Ibaraki Prefectural Government as a maintenance engineer in December 1902. Promoted to engineer the following year, he designed numerous buildings including the Prefectural Library (completed November 1903), the Prefectural Commercial School (completed April 1904), Tsuchiura Middle School (completed December 1904), and the auditorium of Ota Middle School (completed December 1904). At the time of 1904, he was 27 years old. (He resigned from the Ibaraki Prefectural Government in March 1905.)
Only the entrance section of the old school building (circled in orange) remains today, but the layout of the school building at the time of its completion was as shown in the diagram.
The old school building was slated for demolition during the school building reconstruction project carried out from 1970 to 1972. Responding to the alumni association’s desire to preserve the old building, the school, PTA, and alumni association formed a “School Building Preservation Council” and submitted a petition to the prefecture. However, since the prefecture did not respond, the council independently decided to preserve the entrance section.
Using 22 million yen from PTA reserves and donations from the alumni association, it was relocated to its current site in 1974.
Standing in front of the building, there is an iron gate at the front. Normally, such a gate wouldn’t be placed so close to the building itself, but I suspect this was likely moved here from where it originally stood as the main gate.
This arrangement was probably necessitated by the site conditions.
In places, the paint is peeling.
The Agency for Cultural Affairs website and the Ibaraki Prefectural Board of Education website describe it as having “stone-clad exterior walls,” but is this really stone? It looked to me like metal plates were attached.
The Cultural Properties Division of Mito City writes that “the pillars are stone-like.”
This is a side view photo, but the window frame area appears to have been painted gray over wood. However, looking at older photos, it seems it was reddish-brown rather than gray.
The wall immediately next to the window glass is wooden, and the section visible at the far right pillar appears to have metal plates attached.
Partial enlargement.
The front roof has small domes on both sides. The curved design of the window glass frames is also interesting.
The relocated building was registered as a Tangible Cultural Property in 1996.
Its registered name is “Former Main Building Entrance of Ibaraki Prefectural Mito Commercial High School.”
The school commonly calls it the “Noibara-kan" (Multiflora Rose Hall) and uses it as an alumni association hall. It also reportedly has a materials exhibition room. I’d like to go inside if I get the chance.
[References]
“Outline of Japanese Commercial Schools” (edited by Nagano Kozo / 1906)
“Education and Facilities (No.66 Autumn Issue)” (supervised by the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, Office of the Minister, Department of Educational Facilities; Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, Bureau of Educational Support, Facilities Assistance Division / Auger Repro Service / 1999)
“Revisiting Ibaraki’s Modern Architecture 19: Former Main Entrance Building of Mito Commercial School” (Asahi Shimbun DIGITAL / April 22, 2012)
“Chronology of Engineer Komagine Kinji” (Compiled by Yokoshima Yoshiaki, Former Principal of Tsuchiura Daiichi High School / 2019)