A study of late 19 th century military bases and barracks of the former army of Japan

Abstract

Now that the buildings of the former Army of Japan are facing the prospect of demolition, there is increasing demand that their historical importance be assessed and that ways be found to reuse or preserve them. Today, as the example of early Meiji barracks built in the middle of 1870's, only three still exist in Sendai, Shibata and Nagoya. The Army's architectural system has not yet been sufficiently studied. So far, the architectural prototype for Army buildings has not been found, but we can describe the architectural planning process and the prototypes both for garrisons, which were built on the site of ancient castles, and for barracks, which mixed the traditional Japanese carpentry and the positive introduction of new techniques from Europe. This paper intends to clarify the planning method for military garrisons and the early stages of the barracks construction process by way of field surveys and archival documents.