First Research Building

Image: Taken in 1967. The Third School Building has been demolished, and the western part of the new Research Building is rising. The Fifth Research Building, built in January 1965, can be seen on the roof of the First School Building.

The atmosphere of the Mita Hilltop Square in those days was well-suited to the description "Oka no Ue." The area where the East Building now stands was once a gently sloping cobblestone path that looked up toward the Old Library with its soaring octagonal tower. Just before reaching the top of the slope, passing several hitching stones embedded on the far left, stood the Maboroshi no Mon, which has now been moved to a strange location. The original gateposts stood around where one climbs the stairs of the East Building and passes through the arch, or slightly above that. Looking back from in front of the Old Library after climbing the stairs at the end of the slope, one could once see the sea shining white in a streak far to the southeast on clear days, though the view is now completely blocked.

The "First Research Building" was about half the size of the current Research Building wing, and its location and shape formed a U-shaped, three-story reinforced concrete white building with both wings projecting toward the First School Building. A bust of Fukuzawa was installed deep in the center of the recessed area. According to records, this building was constructed in 1920 as a preparatory school building. After a winding history—including being used as a school building for affiliated schools such as the Chutobu Junior High School within the Juku, which suffered heavy damage during the air raids at the end of World War II—it was renovated in 1951 and converted into the First Research Building. Facing the First School Building, the entrance was in the right wing, with a study room for graduate students directly in front and the reception and administrative offices further back to the left.

During my time as a graduate student, I mainly used the study room and the reference room, and there was one face I encountered almost every day in the study room. In April 1967, I was appointed as an assistant and given a room on the second floor for the first time. Other rooms might have been different, but the room I was assigned, though called a research office, was a cluttered space no better than a storeroom. The desks lined up by the relatively bright windows where light came through frosted glass on the south side were already occupied by senior associate professors and full-time lecturers. As a newcomer, I had no choice but to use an empty desk left in a spot near the wall by the entrance that required lighting even during the day. There were many other small rooms in the building, but I remember there being surprisingly little foot traffic. The following year, in 1968, the western half of the new Research Building was completed, and I moved to Room 425. Coincidentally, the person I shared the room with there was the regular of the graduate study room, my senior Akihisa Uetake, who is now a Professor Emeritus.

(Professor Emeritus, Keio University: Kazuyoshi Hotta)