Tokyo Cathedral St. Mary's Cathedral

This church was newly built in 1964 with an innovative design.
The unique curved concrete buildings intersect to form a cross when viewed from the sky.

From the ground, it looks like a silvery swan shaking its wings, and looking up from below, it gently creeps up to the cross-shaped top light at the top, creating a sense of ascent, as if the viewer’s gaze is directly reaching the heavens.

The stainless steel exterior has four levels: one above ground (mezzanine and mezzanine floors) and one below.
It is 39 meters high, 56 meters long, and 41 meters wide. The bell tower is 62 meters high.

The flow line of the church is not a direct entrance from the street, as is typical of Western churches, but rather, it proceeds toward the “Grotto of Lourdes” at the back of the site, then turns around and climbs the stairs to reach the cathedral. This is a traditional Japanese method of walking down the approach to the main sanctuary, and the aim was to create sanctity not only through the monumental nature of the building itself, but also through the power of the “place.

The building was designed by architect Kenzo Tange, who was also known as the “Tange of the world.
In 1970, the papal court awarded Tange the Order of San Gregorio Mannha.

The interior walls, still cast in concrete, give the impression of tranquility. The interior space, which reaches nearly 40 meters at its highest point, represents the sense of ascent of traditional Gothic church architecture, and at the same time, the form is reminiscent of the tabernacle of the ancient Jewish church of the Old Testament, the predecessor of Christianity.

The altar in the back is fitted with thin slices of marble instead of stained glass, which emits a dignified, heavy, and solemn golden light into the interior space as a halo from behind the huge cross that symbolizes the Passion of Jesus.

The reverberation reaches 7 seconds (when empty), longer than in a typical medieval European cathedral. The large space with acoustic characteristics similar to those of a typical European cathedral is said to be rare in Japan, and the occasional pipe organ and oratorio Gregorian chant concerts offer a unique church sound that cannot be experienced in a modern concert hall.