Shiga Prefectural Office Building
I visited the Shiga Prefectural Office Building in December. I’ve made a pop-up card of the building before, but this was my first actual visit.
I tried to take a photo of the front, but it was backlit and came out too dark.
I gave up on getting a front view photo this time.
Instead, I’ll show the pop-up card of the Shiga Prefectural Office Building.
I made the card over 20 years ago and revised it last year.
Now, let’s take a look inside.
A Registered Tangible Cultural Property plaque is affixed to the pillar at the main entrance.
The main building of Shiga Prefectural Office was registered as a Tangible Cultural Property in 2014.
The main building was constructed in 1939.
The design was jointly handled by Sato Koichi (1871-1941) and Kunieda Hiroshi (1879-1943). (My main website page only listed Sato’s name, so I’ll revise it later.)
Construction was carried out by Obayashi Corporation, starting in September 1937 and completed in May 1939.
The photo shows a model displayed in the entrance hall.
The main building of the prefectural office is an square-shaped structure surrounding a central courtyard, with wings extending to the left and right from the front. The front facade is reportedly 106 meters wide.
It was completed despite the worsening Second Sino-Japanese War during construction, which caused severe iron shortages.
Since wandering around the building with a camera might make me look suspicious, I only took photos around the staircases. The wainscoting decoration on the staircase incorporates terracotta-made patterns.
The second floor houses the Prefectural Assembly Chairman’s office and administrative offices. The door at the front bore a nameplate reading “Assembly Member’s Office.”
The room in front of the stairs on the fourth floor is a conference room.
Looking down at the stair landing and stained glass.
The same spot viewed from mid-staircase.
(This time, only the staircase area was photographed.)
After the World War II, the Prefectural Government expanded by acquiring surrounding buildings, demolishing and rebuilding them.
Currently, the Newer Building (built in 1987), the New Building (1974), and the North new building (1974) connected to the northeast corner of the New Building are located south of the Main Building. The East building (1983) is east of the New building, and the Crisis Management Center (2015) is east of the Main Building. East of that stands the Shiga Prefectural Government Guest Hall and Governor’s Residence (1993).
This is the west side of the main building.
Shiga Prefecture established the “Shiga Prefectural Government Office Buildings Review Committee” in 2025.
The main building is 86 years old, and the building and facilities are showing significant signs of aging. Other government buildings will also require rebuilding or major renovations within the next 10 to 20 years, prompting the decision to initiate a comprehensive review.
Chairman’s statement:
“Regarding the direction of improvements, we consider three major perspectives: being open to the public, creating a comfortable working environment, and strengthening disaster prevention functions.”
“The premise is that registered cultural properties must not be demolished in principle. The central focus of our next discussion will likely be determining the best form for their preservation.”
(From the Summary of the 1st Meeting, September 30, 2005)
Therefore, it appears preservation and utilization strategies for the main building will be explored.
This council is scheduled to operate until March 2027. Materials and meeting summaries are publicly available on the Shiga Prefecture website.
The last photo shows the old prefectural office building that stood here before the main building was constructed.
Construction began in July 1886 and was completed in June 1888.
The photo was published in the 1910 edition of the Shiga Prefecture Photo Album Vol.1.
It was a two-story brick building equipped with a centralized heating system. The designer was Ohara Masutomo (1854-1929). He is also have designed the entrance and exit tunnels for the Biwako Canal.
[Reference] (written in Japanese)
"Shiga Prefectural Government Office Buildings Review Committee" (Shiga Prefecture Official Website / Updated 2025-11-13)