Kugai School

About

Opened in 1873 as a temporary schoolhouse near the Metoba River in Matsumoto, Kaichi School was rebuilt in 1876 in its present East-meets-West style, modeled after Tokyo's Kaisei School. Local master carpenter Tateishi Seiju designed it, and when construction costs ran over budget, Matsumoto residents are said to have covered about 70 percent of the difference through donations. Above the octagonal tower at the front entrance and the Western-style arched windows sit an Azure Dragon amid clouds, and above that, angels holding a banner. The angel and dragon carvings on the roofline and corridor doors are said to have no equal anywhere in the world, and together with the stained-glass windows in the second-floor lecture hall, they round out the building's character. Used as a school for about ninety years until 1963, the building was relocated and reopened as an education museum in 1965; it was designated an Important Cultural Property in 1961 and a National Treasure in September 2019. Slip on the visitor slippers, breathe in the scent of aged timber, and climb the original 1876 staircase — the West as Meiji-era carpenters imagined it still stands intact.