Hirosaki Church, Gothic Christian church in Hirosaki, Japan.
Hirosaki Church is a wooden single-storey building with a gabled zinc-plated iron roof and a partial second floor, completed in 1906. Its front facade has two French Gothic-style twin towers, buttresses and pointed-arch windows. The interior and altar are plain white plaster, and the second-floor narthex contains three tatami rooms separated by sliding fusuma doors.
The congregation was founded in 1875 by Honda Yōichi and missionary John Ing, making it the oldest church in the Tōhoku region and the seventh oldest Protestant church in Japan. The first modest wooden hall of 1880 was replaced in 1897 by a Gothic-style building by Horie Sakichi, which burned down in 1904. The present church was completed in 1906, designed by Sakuraba Komagoro and built by Saitō Isaburō, Horie's fourth son.
Founded in 1875 by Honda Yōichi and missionary John Ing, it is the oldest church in the Tōhoku region and the seventh-oldest Protestant church in Japan. The name recalls the Hirosaki Kōkai, a Presbyterian congregation that became Methodist in 1876. Worshippers still use the 1906 hall, whose upper narthex has three tatami rooms behind sliding fusuma.
The church stands at 48 Motoderamachi in Hirosaki, Aomori Prefecture. From Hirosaki Station on the Ou Main Line, take a bus for about five minutes, get off at Kamimotoderamachi, then walk about five minutes. The building is a single-storey wooden structure with a partial upper floor.
The second-floor narthex hides three tatami rooms divided by sliding fusuma; with the partitions removed they form a roughly 30-tatami hall overlooking the sanctuary, letting the church seat more people. The architect was Sakuraba Komagoro, and the contractor Saito Isaburo, fourth son of builder Horie Sakichi.
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