Yasuda Auditorium ( 安田講堂 , Yasuda kōdō ) is a building and clock tower at the center of the Hongō campus of the University of Tokyo . It serves as the central symbol of the campus, where special events and graduation ceremonies are held.
14-562: The building was completed in 1925 with a donation from businessman Yasuda Zenjirō , who intended for the building to be a binden (a place the Emperor of Japan could stay). The building was designed by architects Yoshikazu Uchida and Hideto Kishida , the latter of whom was an expressionist . During the Second World War , in October 1940, the auditorium was the site of a special celebration of
28-720: A member of the Yasuda clan in Etchu Province. Zenjirō moved to Edo at the age of 17 and began working in a money changing house. In 1863, he started providing tax-farming services to the Tokugawa Shogunate . After the Meiji Restoration , he provided the same services to the new Meiji government . Yasuda profited from the delay between the collection of taxes and their forwarding to the government. He greatly magnified his wealth by buying up depreciated Meiji paper money that
42-455: A minor zaibatsu ( Asano zaibatsu ). His Nippon Chuya Bank was unsuccessful, so he sold it to Yasuda zaibatsu in 1922. Asano zaibatsu kept minor because it did not include a bank and was ranked fifth in scale. Asano is called " the cement king ." Asano also reclaimed Tokyo bay from 1913 to 1927, made a coastal industrial zone (Keihin Kogyo Chitai) and established the forerunner of
56-671: A street vendor. Then he moved to Yokohama , bought coke (fuel) , which a gas company threw away, sold it to Fukagawa Cement Works, and became very rich. He purchased Fukagawa Cement Works from the government in 1884 (Asano Cement), with help from Shibusawa Eiichi , founded Iwaki Coal Mine in 1884, Oriental Liner (Toyo Kisen) in 1896, Tsurumi Reclamation Company (Toa Construction Corporation) in 1913, Asano Shipbuilding and Engineering ( Japan Marine United ) in 1916, Nippon Chuya Bank in 1916, Oki Electric Industry in 1917, Asano and Company in 1918, Asano Holding Company in 1918, and diversified his business interests, which eventually became
70-400: Is the maternal grandfather of artist and singer Yoko Ono , the widow of musician John Lennon . Allegedly, Lennon, on seeing Yasuda's photograph for the first time, said "That's me in a former life", to which Ono replied "Don't say that. He was assassinated." Lennon would later be murdered in 1980. Asano Soichiro Asano Sōichirō ( 浅野 総一郎 , April 13, 1848 – November 9, 1930)
84-647: The University of Cambridge 's gate tower, which Uchida could have been inspired by. To the university, the building represents the modernization efforts of the University of Tokyo. The red-brick used in the building is indicative of the architecture in the period following the Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923. The building's architecture is part of the Gothic Revival school, a school of architecture new to Japan by
98-631: The Yasuda Auditorium to the Tokyo Imperial University and the Hibiya Kokaido hall. He owned a lot of land in Tokyo which was later used as Yasuda Garden, Yasuda Gakuen, and Doai Memorial Hospital. Yasuda was assassinated in 1921 by nationalist lawyer Asahi Heigo because Yasuda had refused to make a financial donation to a worker's hotel. Yasuda’s adopted son, Yasuda Zenzaburō (安田善三郎)
112-752: The Tokyo Fire Insurance Company (renamed the Yasuda Fire and Marine Insurance Company, now Sompo Japan Insurance ). Yasuda was among the best financiers that Japan had; however he was not adventurous and hardly expanded the business beyond finance. Most of the industrial houses associated with Yasuda were actually those that Asano Soichiro (the founder of the Asano zaibatsu ) started, whom Yasuda trusted and provided loans to. More accurately, therefore, they belonged to Asano zaibatsu and were merely affiliated to Yasuda Zaibatsu. In his later years, he donated
126-651: The anniversaries of the Imperial Rescript on Education and of the establishment of the Imperial Family of Japan in power. During the 1968-69 Japanese university protests , the building was occupied by student demonstrators - first in June 1968, when a dispute at the University of Tokyo Medical School led to medical students occupying the building and then being expelled from it soon after by riot police, and again starting in summer, when students barricaded themselves inside
140-416: The building. Over the weekend of 18–19 January 1969, the protestors were cleared out of the building by riot police. After the protests, the Yasuda zaibatsu helped renovate the building. Since the protests, the building has never been used to commemorate entrance or graduation ceremonies, but it has become a symbol of the University of Tokyo. The architecture of Yasuda Auditorium has been compared to that of
154-702: The government subsequently exchanged for gold . Yasuda helped establish the Third National Bank in 1876. Later, in 1880, Yasuda set up the Yasuda Bank (later the Fuji Bank , now Mizuho Financial Group ) and the Yasuda Mutual Life Insurance Company (later merged to form Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance ), which he organized into a zaibatsu holding company. In 1893, the Yasuda zaibatsu absorbed
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#1732890928220168-474: The time the building was built. The prominence of the clock tower over the circular building has been described as "phallic". The building includes an auditorium, central administrative offices for the university, and a room made specifically for the Emperor where he would wait to give special watches to all graduates. Yasuda Zenjir%C5%8D Yasuda Zenjirō ( 安田 善次郎 , November 25, 1838 – September 28, 1921)
182-630: Was a Japanese businessman responsible for founding a number of companies, including what became today's Sapporo Breweries , Toa Construction Corporation , Oki Electric Industry , JFE Group and Taiheiyo Cement (formerly Asano Cement ). He came from a samurai family in the Toyama region . His Y-DNA is D1a2a1a2b1a1a8a (D-CTS4093). He was Doctor Asano Taijun's son. He was originally named Asano Taijiro. Although He studied medicine, he began business in his hometown and failed. He lost his money and did moonlight flit to Tokyo . He sold drinking water as
196-403: Was a Japanese entrepreneur from Toyama , Etchu Province (present-day Toyama Prefecture ) who founded the Yasuda zaibatsu (安田財閥). He donated the Yasuda Auditorium ( 安田講堂 , Yasuda Kōdō ) to the University of Tokyo . He was a maternal great-grandfather of Yoko Ono via his daughter Teruko, and adoptive son, Yasuda Zenzaburō (安田善三郎). Yasuda Zenjirō was the son of a poor samurai and
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