Junichiro Ishikawa

After graduating from Tokyo Imperial University, Junichiro Ishikawa joined the Takenaka Corporation, a major Japanese architecture and construction company in 1922. In 1946 he was designated design director in the company’s head office in Osaka. Eight years later he left Takenaka in order to establish his own architectural firm.

Judging from his graduation design Ishikawa never had any interest in expressionism but was immediately oriented on the abstract physical shape. In his early years he designed churches, industry and office buildings, at first mostly in his hometown of Yokohama. His main works include the Finger Road Church (1926) and Asahi Shimbun Yokohama office (1931) in Yokohama, a modern brewery in Hyogo prefecture (1930), the Tokyo Takarazuka Theater (1933), and the Asahi Building in Osaka City (1931), which was described at the time of completion as “the most sensational building in Japan”.

The design Ishikawa submitted to the Olympic Arts Competition was a tower commemorating the 20th high school baseball tournament at the Koshien Stadium, a baseball park located near Kobe in Nishinomiya, Hyōgo Prefecture. At this stadium, the Japanese high school championships have been held for over 100 years. The current tower, however, is already the third generation but it still follows the original basic design. The tower was completed in 1934 in the pine forest east of the stadium. With a height of 33 meters, the tower was made of reinforced concrete with 20 pillars surrounding the central circle. The total diameter is 35 m, with staircase type bleachers of 8 steps. Its appearance is reminiscent of a circular fighting field like the Colosseum of ancient Rome. The tower was destroyed during the war in 1944.