This is St. Mary’s Cathedral, built in 1964 to commemorate 100 years of Christianity in Japan. This was also two decades after the first cathedral had been destroyed in WWII. The building was designed by Kenzo Tange in the shape of a cross, with eight hyperbolic parabolas opening upwards to form a cross of light, which continues vertically along the length of the four facades. The design would later inspire San Franscisco’s own St Mary’s.
I found the building breathtaking, with the brut concrete interior even more effective than the outside. But apparently, the clerical authorities were lukewarm about it, and architectural critics consider it “as one of Tange’s lesser works, dealing in cliché and failing to establish a civic space of the sort that Tange aspired to.” I’m not an architectural critic. I just feel what I feel.
I knew I’d find the building interesting, but what I didn’t expect was to see the sacred space in use by actual believers. We joined two people in silent prayer in the little grotto across the parking lot; then one of them broke into a chant that gave me goosebumps. They would continue to sing hymns for the rest of our time there, which I found very moving.
We weren’t supposed to take photos inside the cathedral, but I couldn’t help taking these. That baptismal font is a work of art. x
The space and neighborhood around St. Mary’s Cathedral.