Fifth High School Museum, Kumamoto University (熊本大学五高記念館) 熊本大学五高記念館

Red-brick classrooms from 1889 where Hearn and Sōseki taught; free admission.

The building was constructed in 1888–89 by the Ministry of Education as the main building of Higher Middle School No. 5 (第五高等中学校, opened in 1887), which in 1894 became the Fifth High School (第五高等学校) and in 1950 was absorbed by Kumamoto University. Two storeys high, in brick laid in English bond with ten classrooms per floor, it was designed by the engineers Yamaguchi Hanroku, who had studied in France, and Kuru Masamichi, a pupil of the Englishman Josiah Conder. According to the city guide it is the only one of the eight ‘numbered’ high schools of the old system (from the first in Tokyo to the eighth in Nagoya) whose building of that time still stands in the same place and looks the same. In August 1969 it was declared a national Important Cultural Property (重要文化財) together with the chemistry laboratory and the red gate; since 1993 it has been a memorial open to the public, with weekday opening since 2006. Hearn taught here from 1891 to 1894 and Sōseki from 1896; in Kumamoto Sōseki wrote 40% of all his haiku, and 29 are about the school. The permanent exhibition was renewed in November 2025.

Kumamoto

Suidocho, Torichosuji, Kuhonjikosaten, Kurokamimachi

https://theanimetrip.com/luoghi/museo-del-quinto-liceo-kumamoto