When was the Akita Prefectural Public Hall completed
Last time, I made a pop-up card for the Akita Prefecture Memorial Hall. Next, I should make a pop-up card for the Akita Prefectural Public Hall (which was built in the Meiji era, not the Taisho era).
So I did some preliminary research on the public hall and ended up only doing a preliminary check.
I have re-posted the images I used before, although they are not very clear.
I found a clearer image on the Edo Tokyo Museum’s website, so if you are interested, please visit there as well.
“Akita Prefectural Public Hall (postcard)" (from the Edo-Tokyo Museum collection), linked to the Tokyo Museum Collection(ToMuCo) Site.
Now, the reason it took me so long to do my preliminary research is because I found some discrepancies in the year of completion and the designer when I looked at past books.
(1) When was the construction completed?
(Many parts of this article are not exact quotations but summaries, but for the sake of clarity, the text color of not only the quotations but also the summaries is green.)
According to “Akita City History, Showa Edition" (1967), the public hall was completed on November 3, 1904.
However, the chronology of the construction is different from the main text, which states that the construction was completed in 1900, even though they are in the same book.
This seems to be an inheritance of a misprint in the “Akita City History, Vol. 2" (1951), which states, “On May 10, 1900, there was a wedding ceremony of the Imperial Highness the Crown Prince, and it was decided to build a public hall in commemoration of the wedding ceremony, and completed in this year."
However, in another page of the same “Akita City History, Vol. 2" (1951), there is the following statement. (Summary)
“During the time Governor Chiyosaburo Takeda was in office (1899-1902), he directed the construction of the public hall. The engineer finished the design by the end of the year 1900.
The construction took five years and could not be completed during Governor Takeda’s tenure, so the inauguration ceremony was held in November 1905, during the next Governor Shiba’s tenure. (Omitted…) This was commonly called the “Public Hall", which was destroyed by fire on April 29, 1918, and only the foundation stone remained. On the site, the Akita Children’s Hall was built in 1950."
(* There is a postscript at the end of the chapter.)
I am confused by the notation “1905" here. Is this another error in writing ?
Let’s check another book.
I will pick up the description about the public hall from “History of Akita Prefectural Government, Vol. 2" (1956).
At a special prefectural assembly meeting in May 1900, a proposal to build a public hall to celebrate the marriage of the Crown Prince was submitted and passed. Next, a budget proposal was also passed with a budget of 50,000 yen, making it a continuing project from 1900 to 1901.
At the December 1901 prefectural assembly meeting, the planned construction site was negotiated with Akita City, but the city would not approve the location, so the project is still under consideration.
February 1902 (1902) prefectural assembly. It took a long time to decide on the construction site, and the design of the building was beyond the control of the prefectural engineer, so they asked Tokuma Katayama to design the building. At this point, the site preparation and side stone installation had just been completed. The assembly proposed an increase in the budget and an extension of the completion year.
March 1904 Extraordinary Prefectural Assembly. Following the start of the Russo-Japanese War, the prefectural budget was reduced. The budget for the public hall was also changed in terms of implementation period and amount. After adjustments were made, the total budget was 76,858 yen, and the current year’s budget was 22,246 yen, with completion scheduled for this year.
At the November 1905 assembly meeting, a budget of 15,344 yen for equipment for the public hall was proposed as “the budget for the next fiscal year. (The amount was apparently revised, but not specified.)
The above is the description about the public hall in the “History of Akita Prefectural Government".
The exhibition “Modern Architecture in Akita as Recorded in Prefectural Documents," held by the Akita Prefectural Archives in 1999, dates the construction of the public hall to 1904. Since this exhibit displayed documents related to the prefecture’s architecture, so the year “1904" would be based on the documents.
I would also prefer to give priority to this description, but I am caught up in the fact that the 1905 prefectural assembly secured a budget for “public hall equipment expenses".
Or is it safe to assume that this was influenced by the reduction of the budget due to the Russo-Japanese War?
The 1905 “History of Akita City" contains some obvious misstatements, so I hesitate to trust it completely.
Based on the description in the prefectural archives, I have decided to date it to 1904.
[Postscript] (2024.07.12)
A check of the tenure of the governor of Akita Prefecture revealed that Governor Shiba had died of illness in June 1903 during his term of office.
Whether the public hall was built in 1904 or 1905, the descriptions of the governor and the inauguration ceremony in the Akita City History do not match the facts.
(2) How involved was Tokuma Katayama?
The above pamphlet from the Public Archives clearly states, “The public hall was designed by Tokuma Katayama, a leading member of the French School of architecture in the Meiji era".
Combining the records of the prefectural assembly with the description in the city history, it seems that the situation was that “a prefectural engineer designed the building at first, and when it did not work out, they asked Tokuma Katayama to design it.
However, looking at the situation of Tokuma Katayama at that time,
From June to November 1899, he went to the U.S. to order a survey of materials for the construction of the Crown Prince’s Palace. (Construction of the Crown Prince’s Palace began that year.)
From December 1902 to December 1903, he traveled to various countries in Europe and America.
This was a period of many overseas business trips related to the construction of the Crown Prince’s Palace.
The request from Akita Prefecture to Katayama was probably made between the end of 1901 and the beginning of 1902, so he was probably in Japan at that time and could have made the request itself. However, it is doubtful that he could have accepted the request for design during the national project of building the Crown Prince’s Palace.
According to the prefectural archives, few design drawings from that time have survived.
This is only my personal imagination, but it may be that Katayama provided guidance and advice to the prefectural engineers rather than taking the initiative in designing the building.
Searching the National Diet Library Digital Collections for “Designer of Akita Prefectural Public Hall" (in Japanese), I found the following description in “History of Akita Prefectural Akita Library, 1961".
This was in 1908, when a proposal was made at the prefectural assembly to build a new library stacks. The person who explained the construction method at that time was Naoaki Yamaguchi, an engineer in prefecture.
“According to Naoaki Yamaguchi, a counselor and designer of the Akita Prefectural Public Hall, the building is designed to be covered with roof tiles and coated with plaster, which made it more resistant to earthquakes…". The text was deliberately annotated with the phrase “designer of the Akita Prefectural Public Hall.
Therefore, I am thinking of writing “Designed by Naoaki Yamaguchi (prefectural engineer) and Tokuma Katayama (design advisor)" on the pattern for the pop-up card.
I am not sure if this is correct.
Yamaguchi was appointed as an official for the construction of the Crown Prince’s Palace on May 1, 1905.
In the “History of Meiji Industry, Architectural Edition", it is written, “On May 1, 1905, Naoaki Yamaguchi, an Akita Prefecture engineer (on leave), was appointed as a member of the Imperial Household Management Bureau of the Crown Prince’s Palace".
Since the text says “on leave," it seems that he took a leave of absence from his position as a prefectural engineer to participate in the construction of the Crown Prince’s Palace. The construction of the Akita Public Hall may have established a connection with Tokuma Katayama.
Naoaki Yamaguchi is also credited as the designer of the former Akita Bank head office main building (completed in 1909, now the Akita Municipal Red Brick Local Museum).
I hope you will forgive me if I have not been able to summarize what I have written about what I was interested in.
I may have a different opinion if I check the prefectural documents, etc., so this is my thought at this point.
The next article will be about the pop-up cards. (I hope it does)
[Reference] (all written in Japanese)
“Akita City History – Showa Edition" (Akita City History Editorial Board / Akita City / 1967)
“Akita City History Vol.2" (Rekisi-tosho-sha / 1975 *The contents are a reprint of the city history published in 1951.)
“History of Akita Prefectural Government, Vol. 2" (Akita Prefectural Assembly Akita Prefectural Political History Compilation Committee / Akita Prefectural Assembly / 1956)
“History of Akita Prefectural Akita Library, 1961" (Akita Prefectural Akita Library/1961)
“Modern Architecture in Akita as Recorded in Prefectural Documents" (Akita Prefectural Archives/pamphlet of the exhibition held in 1999)
“History of Meiji Industry, Architectural Edition"