What is "Akagane-goten"?

One of Japan's important national treasures, the former Isono mansion house (5 Chome, Koishikawa, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo), has been called the "Akagane-goten" from its neighbors since the time of its completion. The founder, Kei Isono, also known as the "king" of forestry, put no limit on the budget and construction schedule of the house. He appointed Yonezo Kitami (21 years of age at the time) whom he acknowledged to be highly gifted, to head the architectural design and the construction.　Kitami gathered sumptuous construction materials from all over Japan as well as from abroad, such as cypress from Kiso, cedar from Yakushima, Mulberry from Mikuragima, and fine glass with indented surface imported from Belgium. With these luxurious materials and the hard effort of the master craftsman, Akagane-goten took 7 years to build, and was finally completed in 1912 (the first year of Taisho period). Since the condition given by Isono (the founder and owner) for the architectural design was "to be like a temple, to be resistant to earthquake and to be unburnable by fire", an unconventional approach has been taken for that time. Kitami did not bind himself to traditional ways but took full measures to fulfill the conditions and structured the house to be as requested: temple-style, aseismatic and fire-resistant on the outside. The roof has been covered with bronze tiles to reduce its weight, simultaneously making the building earthquake and fire resistant. Thorough consideration has been paid for containing rainwater by shaping the roof to be "irimoyazukuri"* style. (*"irimoyazukuri" is a traditional style roof often found in temples in Eastern Asia. The roof structure is divided into upper and lower levels.) The exterior wall has also been made of bronze boards for its fire-resistance. As a matter of a fact, Akagane-goten got its name from these bronze tiles and boards because when it was completed, it shone in red color ("akagane" in Japanese) reflecting the sun. Furthermore, the subfloor has been thought out creatively from the perspective of moisture prevention, and owns a unique, scientific structure. With such perfection especially in the planning and structure of the scientifically advanced architectural work, Akagane-goten rightly deserve to hold the reputation of being one of the finest modern Japanese residences.

Photo　Gallery Click to enlarge the image Gate 　 Exterior others Glass window Shoji (paper sliding-door)

The master craftsman, Yonezo Kitami, was not just an ordinary craftsman, but he had the ability to proceed with all architectural factors put together: architectural design, planning, estimation/budgeting of the specification, as well as undertaking construction. Especially with woodworking, he was extraordinary, and was able to do everything from purchasing materials to lumbering, manufacturing tools to crafting. He also had many followers; it has been said, that more than 100 craftsmen gathered to work for him. His work was so fine that for one of the extremely delicate designs of the wood interior, each piece of wood had its own measurement. For example: after purchasing a whole mountain worth of cypress from Kiso, he stationed a blacksmith there to make an edgetool tailored to each tree. Then he would make the rift-cutter carve the wood, and would make him do the process of checking the curve and then carving it over and over about 3 times, allowing not a single mm of impreciseness. The materials, the finish up, the construction, all marked the best quality of that time. The interior was fully focused on the art of carpentry techniques. i.e., it excluded paintings, sculptures or other artwork to emphasize the beauty of the formulative design of wooden architecture. One of the interior walls are said to have been painted eleven times by 2 Meisters. Not one crack was found after the great The Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, proving the quality of their work. Furthermore, glass in resident houses was rare at the time, and was seen as the beginning of modernism. Akagane-goten had heavy, hand-made glass with fine indented surface imported from Belgium, which is firmly framed into the upper and lower part of the sliding doors. It is amazing to see how the door still functions so smoothly despite its weight. Kitami had wanted to make the house look like "Nigatsu-do" . Therefore, he had the originally flat garden artificially dug in the front part, and had cypress trees planted on the small hill developed on the other end to adopt the atmosphere of "Higashi-yama" . The gardening work was done by Takejiro Yoshino, a royal warrant plantsman. Many of the garden stones were shipped from Ito, and the larger ones are said to have been transported by 4 cows during night. Another part of the house with an elaborate design is the gate. The master craftsman had wanted to leave behind a triumphant gate which no one else could build, without spending much money on it. So he took one of the lumber woods that were used as a weight at the lumberyard, and instead of making it into firewood as it usually would end up, he fumigated it with wood scraps, and after having it polished by the gardener, he assembled a gate with it himself. For the raised roof which has been cleverly made for its accuracy, is impressing as a fact that not one bracket wood was used. Another factor which draws attention, is that one large solid board of cinnamon tree has been used for each of its gate doors. And for the gate piers, curvy logs called Yotsuya-maruta have been used. Resistance to earthquake has also been secured by drilling in tenon into stones for support. In today's Tokyo, much valuable architecture from before WWII are being lost, but "Akagane-goten" stands firmly and is kept in a very good condition even after 90 years after its completion. It survived the Great Kanto Earthquake and the air-raids during the war, and thanks to the good maintenance of successive owners, it has been designated as a national treasure in December, 2005. And so, it seemed as if "Akagane-goten" had been saved from the threat of distinction and will be rightly preserved. However, on the land right next to Akagane-goten, there popped up a construction plan for a 14 story-tall mansion house. The distance between the important national treasure and the planned land is only one meter apart. It is obvious, that there will be an adverse impact to the national treasure resulting from the vibration, sound and earthwork of the new construction. Needless to say, the threat of strong winds developing from the high building is truly an alarming concern. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Problems surrounding the national treasure The figure below shows the position of the national treasure "Akagane-goten" and the new mansion house. 　 As you can, see, the distance is extremely close. The closest area (the hall with glass windows) only has 5-7 meters in-between. Impact to the trees in the garden is equally troublesome. Following is the diagrammatic elevational view: It goes without saying that much too huge a building will be standing in front of the treasure. Depression of land can be predicted, and the effect of the construction's vibration and sound cannot be neglected. And the damage from the wind developing from the building is quite serious. There is a president where a 15 story high mansion house was built south to the Akagane-goten's gate, right across the street, in 1971 (Showa　46). The result was, very strong winds developed, causing damages such as breaking the metal gate bar and blowing off the roof from the tea-house next to the entrance gate. Even more severe are the problems from the foundation work. This mansion house (alias) Bukyo Myogadani Mansion's average ground level (GL) is said to be the same level as where Akagane-goten is standing (top of Yutate-hill). The part where the building touches the Yutate-hill (probably the entrance area), is predicted to be B2 level. Since the construction plan of the foundation work is not revealed, the details are not clear, but it is likely that the foundation work will require another 10m of digging the ground from the 10m-high-B2F-level. Meaning, there is going to be 14 stories above ground level plus 2 stories below ground level build on this land. In another words, the building will be 16 stories high in actual.. This requires at least 5 more meters of excavating the land for the foundation work. 　 This figure shows the prediction of excavation for the foundation work. There will be more than 15m of digging right next to the Akagane-goten. The effect of vibration during excavation work to the treasure is beyond imagination. Illustrated prediction after the completion of the new mansion house: Not only the view, but other harmful effects can be easily predicted. �@Depression of land due to excavation construction. �ADistortion and damage of the building resulting from vibration and sound of the construction. (It is questionable if the building made by the master craftsman that also survived the Great Kanto Earthquake can tolerate the constant vibration of the construction.) �BDamage to the treasure by the wind created from the high building. �CEffect to the trees and plants in the garden. It is problematic that in Japan, that there is no law that limits the construction surrounding national treasures. Law can first be applied to protect national treasures only after damage has been done to it. There are many cases like the "Akagane-goten" which need international opinion and support to prevent damage and pursue the conservation of unique, domestic treasures.