St. Mary's Cathedral

photo by Kakidai · CC BY-SA 3.0

Eight curved concrete walls form a cross seen from above: Tange Kenzō, 1964

Eight curved concrete walls, clad in steel, form a cross when seen from above: this is the cathedral rebuilt in 1964 by Tange Kenzō, after the earlier Gothic building burned in the 1945 bombings. Inside, light comes down through a cross-shaped opening in the ceiling. You can visit for free outside Mass times; no photography inside.

The seat of the Catholic Archdiocese of Tokyo, the cathedral was rebuilt in 1964 after the original building, a brick Gothic church from 1899, burned in the bombing raids of 24 May 1945. The current design, by Tange Kenzō, came out of a 1960–62 competition in which Taniguchi Yoshirō and Maekawa Kunio also took part; it won the Architectural Institute of Japan (BCS) prize in 1966 and was selected by DOCOMOMO Japan in 2003 as a significant work of Japanese modernism. It is about 340 metres from the Hotel Chinzansō garden, on the opposite side of the same street.

ℹ️ Open 9:00–17:00, free of charge, outside Mass and service times (official site, tokyo.catholic.jp/archdiocese/cathedral/). Photography forbidden inside, according to several reviews. About 15 minutes on foot from the nearest station: several visitors report that it is not very easy to reach without your own transport.

🚉 Gokokuji · 10 min walk

Sources: tokyo.catholic.jp · ja.wikipedia.org

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