Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Company Head Office 2012

''Meiji Seimei Kan'' (明治生命館) is a building in

Marunouchi Marunouchi () is a commercial district of Tokyo located in Chiyoda between Tokyo Station and the Imperial Palace. The name, meaning "inside the circle", derives from its location within the palace's outer moat. It is also Tokyo's financial di ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

History

It was designed by Shinichiro Okada and completed in March 1934. The building was one of the first of its kind to be completely designed by Japanese architects, executed by craftsmen and material coming from Japan, as opposed to earlier western-style buildings. This was accomplished just over 60 years after the end of the feudal

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...

and the opening of the country. During the

Shōwa period Shōwa may refer to: * Hirohito (1901–1989), the 124th Emperor of Japan, known posthumously as Emperor Shōwa * Showa Corporation, a Japanese suspension and shock manufacturer, affiliated with the Honda keiretsu Japanese eras * Jōwa (Heian ...

, its metal fittings were requisitioned by the government of Japan. It survived the bombing of Tokyo during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, but was taken over by the General Headquarters /

Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers was the title held by General Douglas MacArthur during the United States-led Allied occupation of Japan following World War II. It issued SCAP Directives (alias SCAPIN, SCAP Index Number) to the Japanese government, aiming to suppress its "milit ...

(GHQ/SCAP) after the war. It was returned to the government of Japan in 1956. In 1997, this building was designated a National Important Cultural Property. It was the first building erected in the Showa period to receive this honour. 明治生命館　ご案内 (Guide to Meiji Seimei Kan). 2013-01-13. New foreign ambassadors are taken by horse and carriage from

Tokyo Station Tokyo Station ( ja, 東京駅, ) is a railway station in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The original station is located in Chiyoda's Marunouchi business district near the Tokyo Imperial Palace, Imperial Palace grounds. The newer Eastern extension is ...

Tokyo Imperial Palace The is the main residence of the Emperor of Japan. It is a large park-like area located in the Chiyoda district of the Chiyoda ward of Tokyo and contains several buildings including the where the Emperor has his living quarters, the where va ...

to present their

letters of credence A letter of credence (french: Lettre de créance) is a formal diplomatic letter that designates a diplomat as ambassador to another sovereign state. Commonly known as diplomatic credentials, the letter is addressed from one head of state to anot ...

to the

Emperor of Japan The Emperor of Japan is the monarch and the head of the Imperial House of Japan, Imperial Family of Japan. Under the Constitution of Japan, he is defined as the symbol of the Japanese state and the unity of the Japanese people, and his positio ...

. When Tokyo Station was being renovated, the starting point of this journey was changed to Meiji Seimei Kan.

Architecture

The whole style of the building is in the

Greek Revival architecture The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but ...

. The facade outside features monumental

Corinthian pillar The Corinthian order (Greek: Κορινθιακός ρυθμός, Latin: ''Ordo Corinthius'') is the last developed of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric order ...

s that run five stories high to the

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedimen ...

, which is actually the fifth floor. The material used is concrete encased steel beam structure with a height of 31 m and an area of 3,856 m². It sits on a property of 11,347 m². It has 8 floors above ground and 2 below. The first and second floor, which contain conference rooms, dining rooms, offices, and waiting rooms, are open to the public for touring.

References

External links

{{Coord, 35, 40, 44.27, N, 139, 45, 41.29, E, display=title Buildings and structures in Chiyoda, Tokyo Important Cultural Properties of Japan Architecture in Japan Meiji Yasuda Life Commercial buildings completed in 1934 1934 establishments in Japan Marunouchi

History

Architecture

See also

References

External links