“Bank of Japan Head Office” Selected as A National Cultural Property with Classical Style Stone Architecture

“Bank of Japan head office(日本銀行 本店)” located in Nihonbashi, Tokyo, was completed in 1896. The building of head office consists of 3 parts: The old building(Main building, Building 2, Building 3), The new building and Annex. The main building has been selected as a national cultural property. There are a lot of modern buildings, Bank of Japan head office is eye-catching with its profound appearance among them.

Bank of Japan head office was designed by Kingo Tatsuno, a pioneer of modern Western architecture. He is also widely known for designing the red brick Tokyo Station later. The building of central dome and entrance pillars are in ‘Neo-baroque style (It is a style that integrates not only architecture but also art such as sculpture and painting)’.

The main building is composed of 3 floors and 1 basement floor, uses the structure of brick masonry with a double wall structure, in which bricks are laid inside. It seems that the types of stones are granite on the basement floor and 1st floor, and andesite on the 2nd and above. The initial plan was that the building is made completely of stone, but that changed following the earthquake in Gifu Prefecture, the 2nd floor is made of bricks and the 3rd floor is made by pouring concrete into perforated bricks. As a result, it seems that the building itself didn’t collapse in the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923.

You can visit the wonderful architecture just the appearance, but the Bank of Japan also allows you to see inside of the head office. You can enjoy the underground vault, the former banking floor and the exhibition room with a guided tour. Why not visit the historical head office once?