Architectural tours
Modern Architecture Tours (Kamakura Station area)

• Kamakura Station
  • 12 minutes-walk
• Kamakura Kokuhoukan Museum
  • 7 minutes-walk
• The Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura & Hayama, Kamakura Annex
  • 10 minutes-walk
• The Kaburaki Kiyokata Memorial Art Museum
  • 6 minutes-walk
• The Koga Residence
  • 3 minutes-walk
• Kamakura Museum of History and Culture
  • 9 minutes-walk
• Kamakura Station

Kamakura Station Start

The Kamakura cityscape includes a number of buildings designed by artchitects who were active from the Meiji period to the present. How about enjoying a taste of what modern Kamakura has looked like at different points in its history?

Spot.01

Kamakura Kokuhoukan Museum

A master of modern Western-style architecture pursues the traditional beauty of Japan

Kamakura Station area

Curator's recommends

【Shirasu】
Wow! What an imposing and splendid building.

Namikawa Mikio, Curator, Department of Cultural Assets, Kamakura

The Kamakura Kokuhoukan Museum was designed by Shinichiro Okada (1883-1932), who also worked on the Otaru Branch of the Bank of Japan and the previous version of the Kabukiza Theater. The museum opened in 1928. The building is a registered tangible cultural property.

【Komachi】
I’ve seen the facade of this building somewhere before . . .

Namikawa Mikio, Curator, Department of Cultural Assets, Kamakura

The facade is built in the azekura style using interlocked triangular logs and is modeled on the Shosoin in Nara.
The museum was established after the Great Kanto earthquake of 1923 to protect valuable cultural properties from major disasters, and to make these cultural properties accessible to visitors to Kamakura.

【Komachi and Shirasu】
So, Kamakura has protected cultural properties for 90 years. Great!

7minutes-walk

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The Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura & Hayama, Kamakura Annex

A rich and diverse collection of modern art.

Kamakura Station area

Curator's recommends

【Komachi and Shirasu】
This museum really blends in with Kamakura’s natural environment. Please tell us more about it.

Tomoyo Sanbonmatsu, Curator, The Museum of Modern Art

The Kamakura Annex was designed by Masato Otaka (1923-2010), who also worked on the Kanagawa Prefectural Library and Concert Hall (1954) under the direction of Kunio Maekawa (1905-1986). In contrast to the buoyant impression of the main building in Kamakura—designed by Junzo Sakakura (1901-1969)—the annex is noted for its massive presence with a tiled facade and a ceiling shaped by hand in concrete.

【Komachi】
What are those protrusions above the entrance?

Tomoyo Sanbonmatsu, Curator, The Museum of Modern Art

They are a part of the gallery on the second floor. The building is shaped like this to keep the height down without sacrificing exhibition space.

【Komachi and Shirasu】
The architect must have thought carefully about the surroundings when he designed the building.

10minutes-walk

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The Kaburaki Kiyokata Memorial Art Museum

The result of exchanges between a Japanese painter and an architect known for his modern sukiya style.

Kamakura Station area

Curator's recommends

【Shirasu】
The interior has the warmth of a Japanese house. But, look, what is this room?

Imanishi Ayako, Curator, Kaburaki Kiyokata Memorial Art Museum

This studio is an exact replica—including the fittings—of the studio that Kiyokata Kaburaki (1887-1972) had installed on the second floor of the former family home.
Before the war, Kiyokata lived in Tokyo, where he had a much loved studio in the family home designed by the architect Isoya Yoshida (1894-1974). That house burnt down during the war. After the war, Kiyokata moved to Kamakura. When building his new home in 1954, he chose a design that recreated the atmosphere of the studio that had been destroyed during the war..

【Komachi】
How can you tell that Isoya Yoshida created the design?

Imanishi Ayako, Curator, Kaburaki Kiyokata Memorial Art Museum

The funazoko ceiling, the large windows, and the sparsity of frames in the shoji doors are characteristic of Isoya’s quest for an open, bright, thoroughly Japanese home.

【Komachi】
The studio gets a lot of light. So, this is the kind of room where Kiyokata painted his pictures.

6minutes-walk

Spot.04

The Koga Residence

1916
Enjoy a meal in a Taisho Era Western-style building.

Kamakura Station area

The Koga Residence was built in 1916 as a villa for Seijiro Sho (1862-1926), the managing director of Mitsubishi. The villa was designed by the architect Kotaro Sakurai (1870-1953) who had worked on the designs for the former head office of Mitsubishi Bank and the Marunouchi Building. It took fifteen years to build the residence, but it came through the 1923 Great Kanto earthquake unscathed when so many other buildings in Kamakura were damaged. Later, prime ministers Hamaguchi Osachi (1870-1931) and Konoe Fumimaro (1891-1945) used the residence as a holiday home. Today the building houses a restaurant.

3minutes-walk

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Kamakura Museum of History and Culture

An impeccable private residence designed by Norman Foster

Kamakura Station area

Curator's recommends

【Komachi】
It’s very modern, isn’t it? What are the highlights of the museum?

Takahashi Shinsaku, Assistant Director, Kamakura Museum of History and Culture

The building was designed by Foster+Partners, a firm headed by the architect Norman Foster, a renowned creator of state-of-the-art buildings. The construction of Kamakura House, a private residence, was completed in 2004 Then, when Kamakura City acquired it, the building was converted into a museum. The highlights include unusual building materials such as artificial marble with built-in optical fiber.

【Komachi】
It’s really spacious on the inside, and you can see every corner of the building.

9minutes-walk