Miyazu Catholic Church, 聖ヨハネ天主堂

There are no pews in the nave: the floor is made of mats, and you sit on the floor.

You enter through a Romanesque façade with a large rose window, and inside there are no pews: the floor of the nave is covered with tatami, the rice-straw mats that people sit on in Japan, and the congregation sits on the floor as they did when the church was built (today there are chairs too). Above, the rib vault is lined with wooden boards. The stained-glass windows came from Paris, made with a technique that is no longer used in France.

A wooden church from 1896, three-aisled, 208.09 m², partly on two storeys, with a roof of curved tiles, owned by the Catholic Diocese of Kyoto. It was designed by Father Louis Relave, of the Paris Foreign Missions Society, and built by Miyazu carpenters with keyaki wood, the Japanese elm of Tango. The 1927 Tango earthquake damaged it and the façade was rebuilt, but the main body held. Designated a national Important Cultural Property on 19 January 2024, under the registered name 宮津洗者聖若翰天主堂. It is the oldest surviving wooden Catholic church building outside Nagasaki, and one of the oldest in Japan where Mass is still celebrated.

ℹ️ ⚠️ The opening times are what decides everything: you can go in only on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, between 13:30 and 16:30. On the other four days the church cannot be visited, and even on the three good days the visit may be suspended if a service is in progress. It is a place of worship in use, not a museum. It is in the centre of Miyazu.

🚉 Miyazu · 7 min walk

Sources: city.miyazu.kyoto.jp · online.bunka.go.jp

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