AREA MAP

【重要文化財（本館・講堂）】

松本市県3丁目1-1（あがたの森文化会館）

開館時間　常時鑑賞可（屋外展示）

休館日　会期中無休

建物について

建築年　本館：大正9（1920）年　講堂：大正11（1922）年
設計者　本館：文部省大臣官房建築課松本出張所　糟谷謙三（推定）　講堂：文部省技師　長谷川龍雄
施工者　守谷商会

本館は大正9（1920）年、講堂は大正11（1922）年に、旧制松本高等学校の校舎として建てられた。旧制高等学校は、中学校卒業後に大学へ進学するための準備教育を行う学校で、入学は難関とされ、卒業生には学者、政治家、実業家など著名人が多い（※）。

明治27（1894）年の第一から第五高等学校の発足以降、明治41（1908）年の第八高等学校まで、名称に数字の入った「ナンバースクール」が設立された。松本は明治43（1910）年に第九校に内定したが、内閣瓦解により中止され、大正6（1917）年に地名を冠した校名で内示が出された。校章の9本のラインは、この経緯に由来するともいわれる。昭和25（1950）年に信州大学の学舎となり、昭和48（1973）年の大学移転後は解体の危機があったが、市民や同窓会による保存活動により守られ、現在はあがたの森文化会館として活用されている。

本館、講堂ともに、建物の隅に玄関を設けている。大正期の建築に多く見られる形式で、威圧感を軽減し、民衆に開かれた時代を象徴するとされる。柱・梁風の化粧材を表にあらわしたスティックスタイルで、薄青緑色のオイルペイントと白漆喰壁の建物が、ヒマラヤスギの並木の中に佇む。学校敷地は公園として整備され、建物の南東には木々に囲まれた芝生庭や池を配した庭園が広がり、多くの市民に親しまれている。

大正期の木造洋風建築の典型で、学校建築史上貴重な建造物として評価され、国の重要文化財に指定されている。

※　松本高等学校の卒業生には、古田晁（筑摩書房の創業者）、臼井吉見（編集者、評論家、小説家）、村山雅美（登山家。南極観測隊隊長、国立極地研究所名誉教授）、北杜夫（小説家）らがいる。

Former Matsumoto High School Garden

3-1-1 Agata, Matsumoto, Nagano (Agata no Mori Cultural Center)

Artist: Tomohiro Inaba

Hours: Open at all times (outdoor exhibition)

Closed: None during the festival

About the Building

Year of construction: Main Building, 1920; Auditorium, 1922
Architect: Main Building: Matsumoto Field Office, Architecture Section, Minister’s Secretariat, Ministry of Education; Kenzo Kasuya (attributed). Auditorium: Tatsuo Hasegawa, engineer of the Ministry of Education
Builder: Moriya Shokai

Important Cultural Property (Main Building and Auditorium)

The main building was constructed in 1920 and the auditorium in 1922 as school buildings for the Matsumoto High School, an old-system higher school. Old-system higher schools provided preparatory education for entering university after middle school; admission was considered difficult, and many alumni became distinguished scholars, politicians, and business leaders.*

Following the founding of the First through Fifth Higher Schools in 1894, “number schools,” named with numerals, were established up to the Eighth Higher School in 1908. Matsumoto was tentatively chosen as the site of the Ninth in 1910, but the plan was canceled when the cabinet collapsed, and in 1917 an informal approval was issued for a school named after its locality. The nine lines of the school emblem are also said to derive from this history. In 1950, the buildings became part of Shinshu University; after the university moved in 1973, they faced the threat of demolition, but were saved through the preservation efforts of citizens and alumni, and are now used as the Agata no Mori Cultural Center.

Both the main building and the auditorium have their entrances at the corner of the building. This form, common in Taisho-era architecture, is said to reduce the sense of intimidation and to symbolize an era open to the people. Built in the Stick Style, in which decorative members resembling columns and beams are exposed on the façade, the buildings, with their light blue-green oil paint and white plaster walls, stand amid a row of Himalayan cedars. The school grounds have been developed as a park, and to the southeast of the buildings spreads a garden with a lawn and a pond surrounded by trees, beloved by many citizens.

A typical example of Taisho-era wooden Western-style architecture, the buildings are valued as precious structures in the history of school architecture and are designated Important Cultural Properties of Japan.

*Alumni of the Matsumoto High School include Akira Furuta (founder of Chikuma Shobo), Yoshimi Usui (editor, critic, and novelist), Masami Murayama (mountaineer; leader of the Antarctic research expedition; Professor Emeritus, National Institute of Polar Research), and Morio Kita (novelist).