St. Mary's Cathedral (in ja, 東京カテドラル聖マリア大聖堂, Tōkyō katedoraru sei Maria daiseidō) is the seat of the

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

Archdiocese of Tokyo. It is located in the Sekiguchi neighborhood of Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan.

History

The original wooden structure, constructed in 1899 in the

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

style, was destroyed during the air raids on 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 opposing ...

.Archdiocese of Tokyo
, retrieved 14 March 2010 The present church, designed by

Kenzo Tange is a common masculine Japanese given name. Possible writings Kenzō can be written using different kanji characters and can mean: *賢三, "wise, three" *健三, "healthy, three" *謙三, "humble, three" *健想, "healthy, concept" *建造, "bu ...

, was inaugurated in December 1964. His funeral was held there in March 2005.

Architecture

The layout of the building is in the form of a cross, from which eight hyperbolic parabolas open upwards to form a cross of light, which continues vertically along the length of the four facades. This Tange design inspired the later similar design of the landmark cathedral in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, also referred to as St. Mary's Cathedral. To this

rhomboid Traditionally, in two-dimensional geometry, a rhomboid is a parallelogram in which adjacent sides are of unequal lengths and angles are non-right angled. A parallelogram with sides of equal length (equilateral) is a rhombus but not a rhomboi ...

volume other secondary constructions are added, including the baptistry and the baptismal font. The rectangular shapes contrast with the symbolic character of the cathedral. The bell tower is high, standing a short distance away from the main building. The exterior cladding is made of stainless steel. In 2004 a large organ built by Italian firm Mascioni was installed.Mascioni-organs
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Gallery

File:20030702 2 July 2003 Tokyo Cathedorale 3 Tange Kenzou Sekiguchi Tokyo Japan.jpg, One quadrant of the Tokyo Cathedral, 2 July 2003 File:StMary'sCathedral-Tokyo-01.jpg, Cathedral interior Image:stmary3.jpg, Baptismal font Image:stmary4.jpg, Cathedral interior

References

External links

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Photographs of exterior and interior of church
Churches in Tokyo Mary, Tokyo Roman Catholic churches completed in 1964 Buildings and structures in Bunkyō Modernist architecture in Japan Religious organizations established in 1899 Kenzo Tange buildings 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Japan {{Japan-church-stub