Feature — 2026.08.05
Japan's Beautiful Station Architecture
Japan's Beautiful Stations
Photo: 663highland, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons — Kyoto Station Building
A station is the first building one meets on arriving in a city. Here we read two contrasting stations: the gateway to the capital, and the gateway to the ancient capital.
01Gateway to the capital: Tokyo Station
Designed by Kingo Tatsuno and his colleagues, the Tokyo Station Marunouchi Building has faced the Imperial Palace as the gateway to the capital since opening in 1914. Its long symmetrical façade and north and south domes were also a stage set proclaiming the prestige of a modern nation.
02Gateway to the ancient capital: Kyoto Station Building
In contrast stands Hiroshi Hara's Kyoto Station Building, opened in 1997. Its vast glass-roofed concourse and the grand stairways rising on either side transformed the station from a place of passage into an urban plaza where people gather, sit and look out.
Building a vast contemporary structure in a city of tradition was not without controversy. Yet today, the people seated on the grand stairway gazing over the city show that this building has been embraced as a public space.
Facts about the buildings mentioned in this article are based on the sources cited on each building page (Wikipedia, Wikidata, official websites, etc.).This description has been translated from the Japanese original.
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Buildings in this feature
