Friday The Shinkenchiku Library
The Shinkenchiku Library is a weekly series on au-magazine that introduces out-of-print publications from the 96-year-old Shinkenchiku-Sha archive. This is the final part (Part 4) to Chapter 1 of the book, Architecture of the Shōwa Era (by Hiroshi Sasaki, 1977) – The Status Between 1925 to 1930.
With Shinkenchiku primarily depending on connections from Goichi Takeda (1872-1938) of Kyoto University based in the Kansai region, it was out of touch from the Kantō architectural world and some other architectural groups and movements. However, this placed Shinkenchiku in a neutral position as an architectural medium.
In 1929, four years after the first issue, it was said that the coverage of the world was extremely difficult due to the Great Depression. Yet, under these circumstances, a special issue was published in July 1930 where it featured “Hotel Koshien”. It was a project showcased like no other magazine at the time. The introduction of the building consumed almost all the pages of one book. This attempt, which can be said to have taken advantage of the situation where connections and interviews were limited, seemed to be well received by the readers, and it had a great influence on subsequent issues of Shinkenchiku.
In the later years of the “Osaka era”, before moving its head office to Tokyo, Shinkenchiku sought for a form that would continue in the modern era.
To read the original text excerpt (in Japanese) from Architecture of the Shōwa Era, please visit Shinkenchiku.online.
Next week, we move on to Chapter 2, “The Status Between 1931 to 1937”, which gives an overview of events that occurred within those 7 years.