Former Kaichi School

Former Kaichi school is built in 1876 (Meiji 9) when Meiji new government just had started its administration, renewing Japanese society that previously had been closed to foreign countries by Edo bakufu. Being aware of advanced technologies of western countries, Meiji new government frantically attempted to adopt and absorb western world's technologies and cultures. This building was built in such a trend of generation. Therefore, Its appearance became an compromise style between Japanese and Western style.

This building is located in Nagano prefecture, about four or five hours away from Tokyo by car. The reason why this building was built in such a rural area in spite of its state-of-the-art technology for that era is that Nagano prefecture had the largest number of terakoyas among all Japanese prefectures during Edo period - as for  terakoya, I wrote about it in this article. Because of that reason, one of the earliest Japanese elementary school was built in Nagano, introducing new architectural technology in those days.