4-3 Nippon Life Insurance Headquarters Main Building—A Distinguished Building That Has Endured Through Turbulent Times—

Situated along Midosuji, with its majestic row of ginkgo trees, the stately Nippon Life Insurance Headquarters—enveloped in a subdued exterior of granite from Kitakijima in Okayama Prefecture—is arguably one of the buildings that best complements the beautiful urban landscape of Midosuji. However, this building, too, has weathered the storms of a tumultuous history to reach its present state.

Design work on the Nippon Life Insurance Company Headquarters Main Building began during the era of the Hasebe & Takekoshi Architectural Office, but by Showa 14 (1939), when the northern half of the main building was completed, Japan had already entered the midst of the Sino-Japanese War.Given the circumstances, it was decided to construct only the northern half of the building first, with the stone-clad exterior to be completed all at once when the entire structure was finished; as a result, the exterior consisted merely of mortar applied over concrete. Furthermore, upon the outbreak of World War II, the building’s exterior walls were painted black, and immediately after the war’s end, the building was requisitioned by the occupying forces.
It was not until 1954—15 years after the completion of the first phase—that the granite exterior was finally installed on the northern section of the first phase.Incidentally, during this period, the southern half of the site was occupied by the old main building, completed in Meiji 35 (1902). Supervised by Kingo Tatsuno and Yasushi Kataoka and designed by Sada Sekino, it featured a red-brick exterior accented with a band of granite.This architectural style is known as the “Tatsuno Style” because it was frequently adopted by Kinzo Tatsuno, a Meiji-era master architect who also designed Tokyo Station and other notable structures. The old main building was demolished, and the current granite-clad main building was completed in Showa 37 (1962).The second phase of construction on the south side was carried out and completed under the design supervision of the successors at Nikken Sekkei Construction, who carried on the designs of the Hasebe & Takekoshi Architectural Office.
This building endured the turmoil of the early Showa era, surviving the chaos of the war.

Today, the Main Building of Nippon Life Insurance’s headquarters stands on Midosuji with dignified poise, as if nothing had ever happened. And this poise possesses a rare elegance that defies description.
In the blueprints drawn up by the Hasebe & Takekoshi Architectural Office in Showa 11 (1936), two different elevations facing Midosuji were depicted.One depicted the northern half of the exterior wall with a mortar finish, while the southern half carefully depicted the former main building in the Tatsuno style; the other was a full elevation showing the current granite exterior.The design documents, which depicted an overall vision that was not yet set to be realized, included detailed drawings of windows artfully arranged on the stone-masonry exterior walls.

In addition, numerous meticulous detailed drawings were created of the stone masonry exterior, including the plinth section of the exterior walls, the eave corbels at the very top, the body corbels at the top-floor level, and the quarter-circular corner cutouts at the four corners of the building.The dignity of the current Nippon Life Insurance Headquarters Main Building stems from its highly refined proportions and details, which are consistently applied from the individual parts to the whole while avoiding excessive ornamentation. It stands as a highly accomplished architectural work that integrates Classicism and Modernism.
The figure on the right shows an analysis of the golden ratio composition on the Midosuji-side elevation. Although this diagram was created in recent years, it concludes that a “second golden ratio” is formed by connecting a golden ratio rectangle and a square. Furthermore, the golden ratio can also be observed in the first-floor windows, which are framed by elegant granite moldings.Since no sketches of the golden ratio by the architects of that era have survived, we cannot know for certain whether they actually conceived of the design in this way. However, considering that a similar analysis of the golden ratio can be applied to the elevation of the Sumitomo Building—designed by Eikichi Hasebe—it makes one wonder, “Perhaps the architects of that time were moving their compasses as if in search of the goddess of beauty?”

While I have focused on the exterior design thus far, the floor plan also features a groundbreaking characteristic. Specifically, it is a floor plan in which various building systems—such as staircases and elevators—are arranged in the center of the floor plan, much like a backbone. What is now known as the “core system” was actually conceived in the early Shōwa period.

(References)
Nippon Life Insurance Company (1963), *Seventy Years of Nippon Life*, Nippon Life Insurance Company
Nippon Life　　　(1990) *A 100-Year History of Nissei*, Nippon Life Insurance
Hidetoshi Adachi (2013), “A Re-examination of Modern Architecture in Kansai: Architectural Heritage of the Modern Age—The Main Building of Nippon Life Insurance Mutual Company Headquarters,”
*Architecture and Society* (2013, No. 1090), Japan Architectural Association
Hisashi Yosano (2010) “Archives: Learning from the Architecture of Our Elders—Nippon Life Main Building” *Nikken Sekkei Newsletter*
(November 2010) Nikken Sekkei
Hisashi Yosano, from the lecture materials for the 80th Anniversary of the Issui-kai: “Analysis of the Golden Ratio in the North Elevation of the Sumitomo Bank Headquarters”
“The Spirit of ‘Progress and Harmony’ as Seen in Architecture Associated with Sumitomo”
Shojiro Yamane (1996) “Architect Shojiro Yamane—In Search of the Origins of the Architectural Profession”
“Architectural Journal Booklet 2,” Architectural Journal
Sakutaro Okabashi (1962) “Nippon Life Insurance Main Building: Words from the Designer” *Architecture and Society* (July 1962 issue), Japan Architectural Association