Official

(Shooting in the venue is prohibited.) This time, I took a photo with special permission! )

Let's enter the venue on the 4th floor of the main building.
First of all, what is eye-catching is a model of the "Nippon Imperial Hema Head Office Building", which was built until 1987 at the current location of the Daiei Fudosan Building (1-1-8 Nihonbashi Muromachi). This building, which has an attractive brick exterior, has a more elaborate decoration on the side facing the Nihonbashi River than on the other side, and it was an architecture towards the river.…It's a model that you can clearly see.

The main part of this exhibition is a photograph of the "decoration" of modern architecture in the Nihonbashi area, which is lined up on the back wall, and its commentary.
In addition to the Takashimaya Main Building, the main building of the Bank of Japan Main Building, the Mitsui Main Building, the Nihonbashi Mitsukoshi Main Building, and the Nihonbashi Nomura Building are introduced to the famous modern architecture of the Nihonbashi area, and the exhibition contents are very rich.
It is clear that each architecture is considered to be elaborated even to the detailed Di Tyr, and that the original design is developed based on the classic West architecture, such as incorporating Japanese traditions.

The exhibition is not the only one. On the wall at the back of the left, the design drawing by Mr. Sadataro Takahashi at the time when the main building of Takashimaya was built as the Tokyo Nippon Life Center (completed in 1933) (handwritten but very dense and beautiful!) In addition to the exhibition.
On the walls that are not shown in the photo, post-war architecture that preserves and uses only a part of the decoration of modern architecture that was built in the past, and recent redevelopment buildings that are conscious of the continuity of design with modern architecture before the war are also explained, and panels and models are being exhibited for exhibitions held in the past at Takashimaya.

Although it was a small gallery space, it was very fulfilling, and when I looked closely, I stayed for almost an hour.…！

By the way, another highlight of this exhibition is the "Nihonbashi Architecture Tour" map distributed free of charge.

On the Omote side, the cityscape centered on Chuo-dori in Nihonbashi, the main buildings and their commentary are drawn with wonderful illustrations.

And if you look at the back side, illustrations of the decorations of the buildings introduced on the motivate side and explanations of each are lined up in a row, and the exhibition "History of decorations-Architecture and Rediscovery of Nihonbashi-" You can review.

Not only as a mere reading material, but also if you go through the construction of the Nihonbashi area with this, there is no doubt that the fun will double!

Let's actually go around some "decorations".
For example, the space in front of the elevator on the first floor of the main building of Takashimaya has a Western-style Wort ceiling (a ceiling curved in a kamaboko shape).
On the other hand, the ceiling is also coffered ceiling (a ceiling shaped like a waffle), and the intersection of the lattice is decorated with Japanese-style chrysanthemum crests.
In other words, you can see that the ceiling of the iconic elevator hall is made of a Japanese-Western eclectic design!

Next, let's take a look at the main building of Takashimaya from outside.
You can see that fine stick-shaped decorations are lined up under the eaves at the top of the building.
This is a decoration that imitates a "rafter" that is attached to support the roof in a traditional Japanese wooden building.
There is no need for rafters on concrete eaves, so it will be dared to be decorated. This is also an eclectic design of Japanese and Western styles.

By the way, an example of actual rafters in wooden architecture in Japan is like this photo. (The mountain gate of "Dentsuin" in Bunkyo-ku)
This rafter is a "traditional rafter" arranged at narrow intervals, but the decoration under the eaves of the Nihonbashi Takashimaya Main Building is also a traditional rafter.

If you go to the north side of Nihonbashi, you will see the main building of the Bank of Japan Main Store (2-1-1 Nihonbashi Honishicho), completed in 1896 (the part facing Bank of Japan Street was completed in 1938), and the Mitsui Main Building (2-1-1 Nihonbashi Muromachi), completed in 1929.
All of these two modern architectures are characterized by the "Colint-style large order columns", but when comparing their decorations, you can see various differences.
Comparing the pillars, the Mitsui Main Building has an engraving and shaded, while the Bank of Japan Main Building has a simple impression without engraving.
Comparing the stigmas with rich decorations imitating the leaves of Acanthus, the Mitsui Main Building is characterized by a three-dimensional decoration with thick leaves, but the main building of the Bank of Japan is characterized by the fact that there is no decoration of finely split leaves like the Mitsui Main Building.

In this way, if you walk around the Nihonbashi area based on the contents of the exhibition and commentary on the distributed maps, you will find many discoveries and learnings that you can't go around even in a day.

Since the building is a large structure, it is difficult to see the details unless you use it on a daily basis, but when you pay attention, there is a deep world that spreads out there.…I realized that.
The special exhibition is scheduled to be held until February next year, so please enjoy it with walking around the city!