Mitsubishi Limited Partnership Company Bank Head Office (1922) [Kotaro Sakurai: Attempting the Classical Style]

The Mitsubishi Goshi Kaisha Bank Head Office (completed in 1922) was designed by Kotaro Sakurai and is a four-story SRC building located across Daimyo-koji from Mitsubishi Ichigokan (where Mitsubishi UFJ Bank's head office is currently located). The most notable feature of this building is its exterior, which is a stark contrast to the British red brick style of the previous Mitsubishi number building series, and is built in a classical style ("Neo-Greek Revival style" in the words of Terunobu Fujimori) like a Greek or Roman temple, made of concrete. This style was popular among banks and insurance companies at the time, and Mitsubishi Bank is an early example of this trend. The eaves height is the same as Mitsubishi Ichigokan, and it shows that even when design styles changed, the design was still carried out with an awareness of continuity with surrounding buildings, a mindset that is still carried on by Mitsubishi Jisho Design today.

Among the drawings, the drawings for the "windows" are what catch your eye. There are many drawings that depict in detail even the intricate mechanisms of the sashes. A distinctive feature of the "windows" in this work is the large gabled glass skylight installed above the sales office. This skylight allows a lot of light into the sales office where customers come, making it a building where a lot of light pours in. But wait? Looking at the drawings, there are drawings for a large-scale renovation in 1926, just four years after completion, to build a roof with unfortunate specifications, consisting of corrugated iron sheets on cedar log joists, to cover this beautiful skylight... And to have been renovated in such a short period of time, must it have leaked because of rain? Maybe the design was a bit too aggressive...