[Architecture] Catholic Katsura Church (George Nakashima), which expresses "a sublimity that approaches the heavens"

"My love, I am leaving, on a train heading east..."
There is a song that goes like this, but on that day, I was on a train heading west, getting off at Okayama, crossing the Seto Inland Sea, and arriving in Takamatsu. This was to write a report on my visit to the Catholic Katsura Church. Why go to Takamatsu to talk about architecture in Kyoto?
Yes, there was a reason I absolutely had to go.

Catholic Katsura Church is located in a residential area about a 10-minute walk from Katsura Station in Kyoto City. It was founded as a mission church of the Saiin Church and became an independent Catholic Katsura Church in 1958. Initially, it was a small, single-story building with a gabled roof, but in October 1965, a new sanctuary was consecrated. That is the church I visited this time.

It has a mysterious exterior that does not look particularly Japanese, nor does it look like a traditional Catholic church. Although it is hard to tell at first glance, the floor plan consists of a diamond-shaped chapel and a cylindrical baptistery with a cross displayed on it.

The most distinctive feature is the roof of the chapel. The roof, which draws a soft parabola, is built using a construction method called a shell structure.

The shell structure has the advantage of requiring fewer columns, allowing for a clean interior space. Also, because it is easy to create unique shapes, many churches in modern times have adopted shell structures.

The area around the building is a small garden. Even though there is no river or moat, it is interesting that there is even a stone bridge on the approach.

The wooden door is studded with small crosses that look like shuriken.

When I went inside...

Oh! A unique, yet sacred space that felt like a blend of Japanese and Western styles spread out before me.

The ceiling around the entrance is somewhat low, but it gently curves and rises toward the altar. It is said that this expresses a sublimity that approaches the heavens.

The altar, with its impressive cross-shaped slit, also harmonizes with the architecture.

The tapestry hanging on the altar is Nishijin-ori, composed of a dove symbolizing the descent of the Holy Spirit, the crown of Christ the King, and a grapevine representing how people are connected to Christ.

The interior, including the altar, lighting, and furniture, was also designed by the architect.

The combination of a circular window with a square shoji frame is also unique.

I sometimes see this kind of combination in other old folk houses, but

in this church, the shoji frame doesn't fit into the circle at all lol.

The lighting, which evokes the image of an andon lantern, is an adaptation of desk lamps the architect had designed previously.

The pews have a simple design.

There was also a confessional beside the entrance.

The building opposite the chapel is the baptistery, the room where the ritual of becoming a believer takes place.
The chapel visible in the back is not small, but because of the perspective-driven design, the baptistery can look disproportionately large depending on the viewing angle.

It is not a large room, but the ceiling is rugged. The lighting was likely added later.

Still, isn't this roof breathtakingly beautiful?

As an aside, due to various circumstances, I visited on another day as well, and that day it was pouring rain (lol).

However, I was able to see the "paths of rain" flowing down that beautiful roof, which was wonderful.

Now, who is the architect who designed this beautiful church?
I already gave it away in the title, but it is George Nakashima, known as an architect and furniture designer.

George Nakashima was a second-generation Japanese-American from Washington state. After studying architecture in college and graduate school, he set off on a trip around the world upon completing his studies. Along the way in France, he was captivated by Le Corbusier's Swiss Pavilion.

He came to Japan in 1934. Upon arriving, he joined Antonin Raymond's architectural firm. His colleagues included Junzo Yoshimura and Kunio Maekawa. Raymond had great trust in Japanese master carpenters and craftsmen, and Nakashima learned from them about the dedication to wood and the skills of the artisans. These few years in Japan must have had a significant influence on Nakashima's own creative work.

After that, following site supervision work in India, Nakashima returned to his hometown of Seattle in 1940 due to the worsening political situation caused by the war.
After returning to America, he saw Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture, but seeing that they were built using industrially produced materials and construction methods, he became disillusioned with "architecture" and turned to furniture design. When one thinks of Wright, famous buildings come to mind, but he also worked on many ordinary homes. Perhaps those were the kinds of buildings Nakashima saw.

When World War II broke out in 1941, Nakashima, despite being American, was sent to an internment camp because he was of "Japanese descent." Fortunately for Nakashima, Raymond learned of this plight and soon rescued Nakashima's family from the camp.
Nakashima moved to a farm in New Hope, Pennsylvania, and began making furniture in a small shed. Later, New Hope became Nakashima's home and workshop, and even after Nakashima's passing in 1990, the furniture he designed continues to be produced.

There is another important person in the construction of the Catholic Katsura Church. That is Father Leopold Henry Tibesar, who was the priest of the Katsura Church.
Father Tibesar came to Japan in 1926 with the intention of doing missionary work. He returned to the United States a few years later, and it was there in Seattle that he met Nakashima. Tibesar accompanied Nakashima and other Japanese Americans when they were sent to internment camps, and he stayed with them until the camps were closed.

In 1946, Tibesar returned to Japan to help with its reconstruction. When he was assigned to the Katsura Church, he asked Nakashima to design the new church building. Nakashima accepted the job without pay as a way to repay the kindness he had received during his time in the internment camp.

However, since Nakashima was based in the United States, he was not able to be there to oversee the design full-time. It was Nakashima's eldest daughter, Mira, who was studying at Waseda University at the time, and Tetsu Amakasu, who would later become her husband, who created the actual construction drawings from Nakashima's rough sketches and supervised the site.

This brings the story back to the beginning. Why Takamatsu?

Actually, besides New Hope, there is only one other company in the world in Takamatsu that produces furniture designed by George Nakashima. Of course, it is a company that Nakashima himself recognized for its skill during his lifetime and with which he walked as a partner in Japan.
That company, Sakura Seisakusho, has an attached George Nakashima Memorial Museum.

Yes! I couldn't write an article about the architecture without seeing the actual Nakashima-designed furniture and sitting in the chairs!

So, I came to the memorial museum.

The museum displays furniture that serves as production samples, including chairs that Nakashima worked on during his time as an architect. While photography is prohibited and you cannot sit on these, there is also a showroom for Nakashima-designed furniture that is still being produced and sold today, where you can actually sit on the pieces.

It was the sculptor Masayuki Nagare who introduced Nakashima to Sakura Seisakusho. Nakashima preferred the handiwork and skills of craftsmen over mass-produced machine goods. Sakura Seisakusho had excellent craftsmen. That was likely the biggest reason Nakashima chose Sakura Seisakusho as his partner.

Incidentally, around 1963, when Nakashima and Sakura Seisakusho met, there was a craft movement in Kagawa called the "Sanuki Minguren" (Sanuki Folk Craft Group), which aimed to revive everyday folk tools that had been used for generations in a more refined form, led mainly by local craftsmen. Masayuki Nagare and the founders of Sakura Seisakusho were involved in its establishment. Nakashima also joined the following year.

Also, in Kagawa, from the 1950s to the 1960s, many architects and artists gathered at the invitation of the then-governor, Masanori Kaneko, and left behind many works.

In the cafe space of this memorial museum, there is an old beam on display signed by those who visited the Sakura Seisakusho workshop during that time. It includes a stellar list of members, including Nakashima and Masayuki Nagare, as well as Isamu Noguchi, Kunibo Wada, Genichiro Inokuma, Masanori Kaneko, Takamitsu Azuma, and Masako Hayashi.

The most important thing is that while writing this article, I started wanting to go. To New Hope, where George Nakashima's workshop is located.

"I'm leaving, heading east, on a plane ~"