Why is Taizansō, one of Japan’s Registered Tangible Cultural Properties, located on the ICU campus?

Taizansō is the name of a group of buildings built here in Mitaka by Keisuke Yamada, former Chief Auditor of Nissan Zaibatsu, as a holiday villa where he could hold tea ceremonies away from the city with a view of Mt. Fuji. The buildings that make up the Taizansō complex, namely the Front Gate, main house, Shoin, Machiai, Kōfūkyo, Storehouse and Garage, were newly built or moved to their current location in around 1936. Records of the first tea ceremony at the complex, which took place at a time when war was casting a shadow over the nation, show that it was attended by some influential figures from the political and business communities, such as the diplomat, Yōsuke Matsuoka, and military commander, Count Hisaichi Terauchi. Soon after, however, Taizansō passed from the Yamada family into the hands of its next owners. In 1940, the Nakajima Aircraft Company purchased large tracts of land in the vicinity, and the company's founder, Chikuhei Nakajima, took Taizansō as his own residence. There, he spent his remaining years from the war years until his death not long after the war.

In 1950, ICU chose the Nakajima Aircraft Company premises as the site for the dedication of the university, and Taizansō, which had miraculously been spared from the destruction of the war, came into ICU's possession. Since the university's dedication and founding in 1953 to the present day, Taizansō has been maintained and managed as a facility of the university. Unfortunately, the main house was lost in a fire in 1966, but the six remaining buildings were designated Registered Cultural Properties in 1999 for their historical value.

Through a series of coincidences and good fortune throughout its history preceding ICU's founding, Taizansō has been preserved on campus in its original state.