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Memorial Cathedral for World Peace |
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DATA |
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 Design: MURANO Tohgo
Location: 4-42 Nobori-cho, Naka-ku, Hiroshima City
Purpose of Use: Cathedral
Completed in: 1954
Total Floor Area: 2361sqm
Structure: RC + W
map (mapion)
map (Google Map) |
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This cathedral is the heart of Catholicism in Hiroshima. Hugo LASSALLE*, a German parish priest of Nobori-cho Church who barely survived the atomic bombing, dedicated himself to the reconstruction of the church. Supported by the Pope and the Catholic world, the church was reconstructed as the Memorial Cathedral for World Peace.
Father Lassalle consulted architect IMAI Kenji** and decided to choose
an architect by a design competition. The judges included leading architects
such as IMAI Kenji, MURANO Tohgo, HORIGUCHI Sutemi, and YOSHIDA Tetsuro.
The application guidelines said:
- The architectural style has to pay respect to Japanese elements. It has
to be modern in the soundest manner. Any purely classical style found in
Japan and the other part of the world has to be avoided.
- Both the exterior and interior of the cathedral have to render religious
atmosphere.
- The cathedral has to express solemnity as a memorial.
These prerequisites, apparently contradictive, must have given the applicants a hard time satisfying them. The judges also had their varied interpretations and evaluations. The result was: out of 177 submitted plans, no first place was chosen; the second was given to TANGE Kenzo and INOUE Kazunori; the third to MAEKAWA Kunio, KIKUTAKE Kiyonori, and others.
According to the book written by ISHIMARU Norioki, the church didn't
buy the outright modernism expressed by TANGE or MAEKAWA. MURANO Tohgo
and IMAI Kenji didn't favor those plans either. HORIGUCHI Sutemi and YOSHIDA
Tetsuo, however, were said to have highly evaluated both of the plans.
Therefore, the TANGE's plan, considered the best, came in second and the
first place was not chosen. MURANO, who served as a judge, was after all
selected as architect in charge.
Utter turmoil was witnessed to select the architect but the cathedral
itself became a historic masterpiece of architecture. Believe it or not,
MURANO turned down the design fee for this architecture.
TANGE Kenzo and MURANO Tohgo both represent the Japanese architecture of the late 20th century. Their styles, however, are totally different. TANGE loved Le Corbusier and aimed for huge architecture beyond human scale when he designed the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. MURANO dared to take a different approach from Le Corbusier and encased the architecture in human scale.
If you approach the Cathedral, you'll feel as if it were handmade. For example, the bricks on the wall will give you a warm impression, for their texture is rather rough. The carving by ENTSUBA Katsuzo, a local sculptor, fits the Cathedral entrance quite well.
The Cathedral, made of gray bricks on the reinforced concrete frame,
is exquisitely balanced with the belfry as a facade.
Admission to the interior is permitted. The Cathedral looks rather
somber, though it is lighter than the Gothic style. Different from the
Peace Memorial Museum, the Cathedral seems to emphasize more on remembering
the deceased. |
[footnote]
* Hugo LASSALLE [1898-1990] was born in Gut Externbrock, Germany. He came to Japan in 1929 and taught at Sophia University in Tokyo. He came to Hiroshima in 1940 and served as a parish priest. He was an A-bomb survivor. He became a naturalized Japanese in 1948 and named himself ENOMIYA Mabiki. He was made an honorary citizen of Hiroshima in 1968.
**IMAI Kenji [1895-1987] was a professor of Waseda University. He was detached from the mainstream architecture devoted solely to internationalizm, and sought for sculpture-like style or that of Gaudi. He was a Catholic.
[Links]
1) Memorial Cathedral for World Peace
[Access]
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TRAM : 8 minutes on foot from Hiroden Kanayama-cho or Jogakuin-mae station;
Stands across from an elementary school. |
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BUS : 6 minutes on foot from Jogakuin-mae bus stop. |
 hiroshima tips / Transportation
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| Visitors are allowed to enter anytime but consideration is requested since
this is a working religious facility. |
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Created on May 18, 2000 Last updated on May 10, 2009 Written by makoto Translated by jasmine Photos taken by makoto Camera: NikonD90, NikonD70, Canon PowerShot G3 |
| Photos on this page are licensed under a Creative Commons License. You are free to copy and make commercial use of them under the conditions
"Attribution" and "No Derivative Works". [about copyright] |
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 CENTRAL DELTA INDEX |
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| (CC) arch-hiroshima 2006 |
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