Chuta Ito (1867-1954) is considered as a pioneer of history of Japanese architecture as well as an unique architect. He travelled around in China, India, Persia and Europe for three years. His purpose was to search for the origin of Horyuji-temple. After he came back to Japan, he became a professor for the Faculty of Architecture at Tokyo University. He wrote several theses about architecture, especially about Horyuji and how building styles had developed. His first thesis was the beginning of discussions in Japan about architecture. He designed buildings as well, inspired by Asian styles.
    There are several buildings and monuments designed by this great architect in Tokyo. Tokyo Strolling Society visited some of them. Dr. Shunsuke Kurakata, a lecturer at Waseda University Graduate School of Science and Engineering, is a historian of Japanese architecture, specialising in modern architecture and Chuta Ito is one of his subjects. Dr. Kurakata, a member of our group planned this tour choosing several buildings to pay visits to and gave us a lecture while walking. This programme attracts many people's attention. The number of the participants was twenty five, the largest since we started this society. Some of them came from Kyoto and Otsu.
    We met at Kudanshita Station at a quarter to ten and we departed to Yasukuni-shrine. There are many white doves in the shrine and a group of nature loving devotees takes care of them. The museum Yushukan exhibited treasures of this shrine and war materials. The present building was constructed in 1930-31. Two plates of devil's face welcome visitors at the entrance and monuments of imaginary fish which are usually set on the roof of Japanese castles were here placed at the pillars on both sides of the building's entrance. When we walked inside, I noticed a symbol of a heart at the top of a newel post. Dr. Kurakata explained that Chuta Ito was fond of using this symbol. We first thought it was from Europe, but it had been used traditionally by the Japanese.
    Frankly to say, we felt a bit depressed when we saw several monuments commemorating World War Two. At that time they exhibited hundreds of letters from soldiers who later lost their lives in the war. Kudan area has many places to remind us of the war.
    We boarded the subway to go toward our next destination, the Okura Shukokan Museum of Fine Arts near Toranomon station. The museum was inside the Hotel Okura. The building looked Chinese and was ornamented with several monuments of imaginary monsters. Many reliefs on which the face of a dragon was carved were placed on the surface of the ceiling. The dragons looked as if they glared at us.
    The Hotel Okura itself was well designed and an editor of a high quality magazine told me that she liked the salon very much and she wanted to use this site to take photos for her magazine. It was very cosy and I imagined I could have sat there for a long time just doing nothing or gone to sleep.
    Chuta Ito's most famous work was the biggest building which we had visited in this tour: Tsukiji Hongwanji-temple. Its construction started in 1931. The temple had an Indian exterior. Some experts wrote that it was not genuine, but the style reminded the Japanese of a really exotic temple.
    Both wings had towers resembling an Indian stupa. There were many animal monuments, inside and outside of the temple, which characterised his work. Two stone lions with wings stood by the outside steps. The spiral of lion's fur on the statues was very cute. When I went inside, I noticed a beautiful stained glass window of lotuses. I liked it very much and I took several photos of it. Everyone was excited to listen to Dr. Kurakata's explanation that the building had many animals. We followed him stepping down to the worshippers' lobby and we found each animal stood on the cap of every newel post in the staircase. We looked carefully at those carvings of a cow, an elephant, a lion, a horse and a chicken and a monkey sculpture looked out as if it supported the corner. Some worshippers noticed these strange observers and pointed us and laughed secretly. Of course we had a sincere feeling and before checking those monuments, we paid our respects to the temple, however, we looked outstandingly curious and odd for ordinary people.
    The last place we visited was the Kanto Great Earthquake memorial hall and a museum about the earthquake. A curator who came from Otsu told us that the hall seemed to endeavour to follow Zen-style and he pointed out that the columns had a decoration resembling a lotus and that the tile was paved inside the temple so that people could walk in shoes. The structure had a three storey tower to contain bones of the victims of the earthquake and a hall with a high ceiling. Chuta Ito was a judge of the competition of the hall and the judges decided the winner but Ito decided he himself designed it. In the museum next to the hall we could see the plan and perspective of the originally selected designs which were later abandoned. When we looked up just after we entered the hall, we were very pleased to notice very pretty brackets. They had long ears like rabbits and big noses like pigs. One lamp was lit and the other was not, so we could see the effect of the light on the monuments.
    Several monsters looked down from the tops of the columns of the museum. According to a book on Chuta's work, the pose came from monsters which usually were on Gothic cathedrals. Except for these monsters, it was not so characteristic building. Inside it there were displays about the Great Earthquake and World War Two, stressing how terrible they had been. Probably I was not careful but I could not find any exhibits which mentioned how many Koreans were killed by Japanese during the disturbance. I guessed the museum was for only the Japanese victims and their relatives, although I believed this kind of museum should include our negative past, too. Many charts in the showcase were mainly made by the Tokyo University of Agriculture. We would have liked to have known why the university was involved because many students of the university had joined the tour. If someone knows the reason, please contact me.
    During the walking, we felt former warmongering Imperial Japan which wanted to make Utopia throughout Asia ignoring our neighbouring countries' will. One of the heaviest topics to face made us a bit unconfortable. Yet we were very pleased that we could see great modern architect's buildings. Everyone agreed that we would not have visited those places unless Dr. Kurakata had made such an interesting plan. The tour ended very successfully and gave all participants great satisfaction.