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Hiroyasu Tomiie (富家 宏泰, Tomiie Hiroyasu) (July 1, 1919 - December 21, 2007) was a leading Japanese architect in postwar Japan. He is best known as the architect who led the world of modernist architecture after World War II in Japan.

Biography and personal history

In July 1919, shortly after his birth in Kagawa Prefecture, his family emigrated to mainland China. However, when Tomiie was a child, other family members, except for children, were all dead due to typhus that spread in the northern Chinese territory. After being repatriated, Tomiie was taken in and raised by one of his relative families in Shimogamo, Kyoto. After graduating from the Third Higher School (第三高等学校), which was the predecessor of the Department of Integrated Human Studies at Kyoto University (京都大学総合人間学部), Tomiie entered the Department of Architecture at Kyoto Imperial University (now the Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, Kyoto University). Soon after entering the university, he was drafted into the Imperial Japanese Army and was forced to serve in North Manchuria, but after the war ended, he returned to school and graduated from the Department of Architecture at Kyoto University. After graduation, he attended the graduate school and became a lecturer in Professor Ryo Tanahashi's architectural design laboratory at Kyoto University. While at school, he studied with Ryo Tanahashi (棚橋 諒), who was known for a designer of Kyoto Tower (in front of JR Kyoto Station) and Akashi Municipal Planetarium (Akashi, Hyogo). Tomiie also learn architecture from Professor Keiichi Morita (森田 慶一). In October 1952, Tomiie established his own architectural firm Tomiie Kenchiku-Jimusho (富家建築事務所), which was well received and grew to have more than 300 employees, including full-time staff not only in design and planning but also in facilities, structure, and other areas of architecture. The firm later dissolved due to the economic recession or bubble in Japan during 1980s to 1990s, but Tomiie himself continued to work as an architect. Tomiie is recognized for the fact that he designed so many of the postwar new buildings in Kyoto, especially public works such as school buildings, libraries, museums, gymnasiums, office buildings in Kyoto. He also involved with many projects in other prefectures such as Mie (三重県), Ishikawa (石川県), Hyogo (兵庫県) and Chiba (千葉県). The total number of buildings he designed in his lifetime is 2000 or more. In 1958, he was awarded the Medal of Purple Ribbon (紺綬褒章) from the Japanese government. His activities were not limited to architectural practice, as he was also dedicated himself in fostering future generations in the architectural world. He, for example, assumed a position of vice president of the Japan Institute of Architects (日本建築家協会) and played an important role for establishing Kyoto Architectural Design Supervision Association (京都設計監理協会) and Kyoto Design Association (京都デザイン関連団体協議会).

Evaluation as an architect

Because Hiroyasu Tomiie left more than 2000 works ,mainly in Kyoto, in his lifetime, some have said that he is one of Japan's leading architects, and it is no exaggeration to say that he is the architect who shaped Kyoto’s landscape in the postwar “Showa era” (昭和).

Style of “Tomiie Modernism” (「富家モダニズム」)

It is said that most of Tomiie's works rarely deviate from the basic elements of so-called “modern architecture”, so many of his works are considered to be good examples of post-war Japan’s typical modern architecture. In particular, many of his early works are faithful to the idealistic form of modernism as architecture. However, in his works such as “Koshinkan Hall” (恒心館, built in 1962, later demolished) of Hirokoji campus of Ritsumeikan University (立命館大学 広小路キャンパス), in “Ishikawa Prefectural Library” (1963) and “Kyoto Chamber of Commerce and Industry Building” (1963, later demolished), he used lattices, which have long been used in Japanese traditional architecture, on the walls and windows in those works, in order to remind people of old Japanese or Kyoto style. Furthermore, “Igakukan Hall” (以学館, 1965), in Kinugasa campus of Ritsumeikan University, which is one of his masterpieces in the 60s, he attempted to depart from the dogmatic elements of modernism, i.e., an abstract form of architecture that did not favor symmetry and eliminated symbolic elements such as the tower. In fact, Tomiie placed a huge stair hall in front of the building, and symmetrically placed lecture halls on the east and west sides of the tower. Therefore, the building looks as if a condor were spreading its wings. Tomiie used “Taizan tiles” (泰山タイル), traditional Kyoto pottery from Taizan Seitosho (泰山製陶所) or porcelain factory, on the concrete walls of Igakukan Hall. While the design of the building itself is based on typical modernism in its architectural style, it is clear that Tomiie attempted to seek an affinity between modern architecture and the Kyoto’s landscape by using Japanese hand-made tiles for the walls. Such attempts also can be seen in the symbolic shape of the large roof of the “Catholic Kawaramachi Church” (カトリック河原町教会), which was completed in 1967. As described above, we can see how Hiroyasu Tomiie attempted to overcome a sort of dogmatic aspect or fundamentalism of traditional modernism architecture in Japan from his works, especially from the 1960s onward.

Ritsumeikan University (Kinugasa Campus) and Tomiya Architecture

According to the Ritsumeikan University Archive Center (立命館史資料センター), most of the school buildings constructed at the Kinugasa campus between 1955 and 1988 (64 school buildings in total) were designed by Hiroyasu Tomiie. He used traditional pottery (“75cm x 75cm non-vitreous square tile called Taizan tiles”) produced by the Taizan Pottery Factory (Taizan Seitosho; 泰山製陶所) in Kyoto for the exterior walls of many of the school buildings on the Kinugasa campus. The “Taizan tiles” have a texture that cannot be achieved with mass-produced products, and the beautiful colors created by the glaze are distinctive, helping to create a sense of unity throughout the Kinugasa campus. Tomiya worked on the design of the Kinugasa campus buildings until 1988, and many of the buildings designed and constructed after the closure of the Taizan Pottery Factory (e.g., Soshikan (創思館 2001), Jukoukan (充光館 2007), and Ikuyuukan (育友館 2008)) also use the tiles similar to “Taishan tile” for their exterior walls to go along with buildings designed by Tomiie. Therefore, it is no exaggeration to say that the Kinugasa campus of Ritsumeikan University is a showcase of “Tomiie Modernism”. It is said that Tomiie first used “Taizan tiles” for the exterior walls of Ritsumeikan's school buildings in the “Minami-kosha” (南校舎) of Ritsumeikan Junior and Senior High School, in 1964. The reasons for Tomie's use of “Taizan Tile” are as follows: (1)he personally liked the tile so much that he used it for the entrance of his own house in Kyoto; (2) he was influenced by Scandinavian architecture during a tour of European architecture organized by the Japan Institute of Architects in 1960; and (3) he was interested in the Taizan Tile because of its texture and prestige in the modernist architectural expression.

Notable Works by Hiroyasu Tomiie

Kyoto Prefecture

• Nogakudo of Kyoto Kanze Kaikan (1958)
• Hieizan Kokusai Kanko Hotel (1958; demolished)
• Gymnasium of Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine (1958)
• Headquarters building of Yasaka Jidosha Co., Ltd. (1959)
• Japanese Red Cross Kyoto Daini Hospital (1959)
• Headquarters building of Kyoto Shimbun (1959)
• Kyoto Kita-ward Office west building (1962): Originally build as Kyoto Dentist Union Hall
• Doshisha University Student Memorial Hall (1962; demolished)
• Headquarters building of Kyoto Chamber of Commerce and Industry (1963; demolished)
• Kyoto City Gymnasium (1963)
• Minami-kosha of Ritsumeikan Junior/Senior High School (1964; demolished)
• Igakukan Hall (Ritsumeikan University; 1965)
• Koshinkan Hall (Ritsumeikan University; 1965)
• Headquarters building of Kyoto Kamigyo Police (1965)
• Keimeikan Hall (Ritsumeikan University; 1966)
• Shugakukan Hall (Ritsumeikan University; 1966)
• Ritsumeikan University Library (1967; demolished)
• Wacoal Holdings Corporation Headquarter building (1967, demolished)
• St. Francis Xavier Cathedral, Kyoto (1967)
• Kyoto Prefectural Center for Arts and Culture (1969)
• Gakujikan Hall (Ritsumeikan University, 1970)
• Doshisha University Library, Imadegawa campus (1973; demolished)
• Kyoto Royal Hotel (1973, demolished)
• Kyoto Prefectural Police Headquarters annex building (1974)
• Shigakukan Hall (Ritsumeikan University, 1974)
• Ryoyukan Hall (Ritsumeikan University, 1976)
• Kitamura Museum (1976)
• Seishinkan Hall (Ritsumeikan University, 1977)
• Kyoto City University of Arts (Kutsukake campus, 1978)
• Student Hall (Ritsumeikan University, 1978)
• Chado Research Center Galleries (1978)
• Karasuma Kyoto Hotel (1980)
• Zonshikan Hall (Ritsumeikan University, 1981)
• Kyoto City Library of Historical Documents (1982)
• Dr. Suekawa Memorial Hall (Ritsumeikan University, 1983)
• Shougakukan Hall (Ritsumeikan University, 1988)
• Yoyokan Hall (Ritsumeikan University, 1988)

Ishikawa Prefecture

• Kaga Kanko Hotel (1966)
• Ishikawa Prefectural Library (1966)
• Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art (1966)
• Ishikawa Wajima Prefectural Museum of Lacquer (Urushi) Art (1981)
• Kanazawa Central Police Headquarters building
• Kanazawa Fushimi High School
• Ishikawa Children Center
• Komatsu Municipal High School
• Municipal lyceum in Kaga
• Ishikawa Prefectural Women’s Center building
• Wajima Municipal Culture Hall
• Yukai Resort Yataya Shotoen

Other Prefectures

• Kindai University Hospital (Osakasayama, Osaka, 1975)
• Mie Prefectural Art Museum (Tsu, Mie, 1982]
• Tanizaki Jun'ichirō Memorial Museum of Literature, Ashiya (Ashiya, Hyogo, 1988)
• Chiba Marine Stadium (Chiba, 1990)
• Aobanomori Park Art and Culture Hall (Chiba, 1991)

External links

• TOMIIEDESIGN webpage
• Retrospective Exhibition Commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Architect Hiroyasu Tomiie

References

• Pending AfC submissions
• Pending AfC submissions in article space
• AfC submissions by date/21 October 2024
• 1919 births
• 2007 deaths
• People from Kagawa Prefecture
• Kyoto University alumni
• Japanese architects