When the Mita Main Gate (South Gate) Was Built
Image: May 6, 1959 (Showa 34). The Mita South and West School Buildings, part of the 100th Anniversary Project, were completed, and a dedication ceremony was held. With the completion of the South Building, a new South Gate was established, and an opening ceremony was held simultaneously. In the center is President Fukutar¨ Okui.
Currently, when entering through the Main Gate (South Gate), one can see the forest of Inariyama beyond the guardhouse building on the left, and the Enzetsukan (Public Speaking Hall) also comes into view. In fact, rather than viewing Inariyama from the Main Gate, one can get a true sense of the mountain's presence by looking at it from slightly before the Chutobu Junior High School main gate. Back when the main gate was located on the east side facing Mita-dori, that forest was the most secluded part of the Mita Hilltop Square. People wouldn't even approach the Enzetsukan (Public Speaking Hall) unless there was an event. At the foot of the hill, a few private houses, including Tsunokuniya, which had miraculously escaped war damage, huddled quietly together. That was the feeling of the place.
The appearance of the Main Gate (South Gate) and the South Building fundamentally changed this landscape. To put it somewhat grandly, the front and back of the Mita Campus were completely reversed. It felt as though there was no longer the luxury of looking up at the octagonal tower of the library while walking up the steep cobblestone slope from Mita-dori and imagining the possibilities of the day ahead. The hilltop landscape seen by students also changed significantly. Furthermore, the flow of movement for students and faculty on the hilltop underwent a major transformation. In short, it greatly altered the view of the hilltop and provided a certain sense of space and brilliance to the entire campus grounds. The design of the South Building with its pilotis likely contributed to this as well. This coincided with the period when several private universities in Tokyo (such as Meiji and Rikkyo) began acquiring new land in the suburbs of Tokyo and developing what were called characteristic suburban campuses. It might not be an exaggeration to say that it played a role in significantly changing the concept of the Mita Campus. During the height of the student protests, many student rallies were held on the Mita Hilltop Square, and I remember one occasion when students filled the cobblestone path between the Main Gate and the South Building so densely there was no room to stand. I thought it was an incredible sight. Regardless of the rights or wrongs of the situation, I still haven't forgotten the feeling that the university campus was seamlessly connected to the state of the world.
I have seen photographs from before the war of ´ºÓêÖ±²¥app students, about to head to the battlefield in the middle of their studies due to student mobilization, marching down from the Maboroshi no Mon with the Sanshokuki at the head of the line. For some of them, it must have truly been a "phantom gate" that they would never pass through again. On the other hand, the ´ºÓêÖ±²¥app students who filled the path in front of the Main Gate were perhaps ´ºÓêÖ±²¥app students as a "mass."
(Hiroyasu Iida, Professor Emeritus, ´ºÓêÖ±²¥app)
*Affiliations and titles are those at the time of publication.