Dōjunkai

Minowa Apartments
Uenoshita Apartments

Dōjunkai (shinjitai: 同潤会, kyūjitai: 同潤會) was a corporation set up a year after the 1923 Kantō earthquake to provide reinforced concrete (and thus earthquake- and fire-resistant) collective housing in the Tokyo area. Its formal name was Zaidan-hōjin Dōjunkai (財団法人同潤会), i.e. the Dōjunkai corporation. The suffix kai means organization, and dōjun was a term coined to suggest the spread of the nutritious benefit of the water of river and sea.[1] It was overseen by the Home Ministry.

The corporation was in existence from 1924 through 1941; it was involved in construction between 1926 and 1934, primarily 1926–30, building 16 complexes. The last complex, Uenoshita apartment, was finally demolished in 2013.

History

From 1926 to 1930, Dōjunkai created fifteen apartment complexes (apāto or apātomento), two in Yokohama and the rest in Tokyo. Among the latter, the best known is Dōjunkai Aoyama Apartments (built 19267), which long stood on the avenue of Omotesandō toward its Harajuku Station end. Toward the end of what was by Tokyo standards a long life, the ivy-covered building was increasingly used for ateliers and small independent shops. It was destroyed for the 2005 construction by Mori Building of "Omotesando Hills", a conventional shopping mall. Dōjunkai built one last complex in Tokyo, Dōjunkai Edogawa apāto, between 1932 and 1934.

Dōjunkai was wound up in 1941.

Remarkably, all the apartment complexes survived wartime bombing.

After the war, the government sold the land of most of the complexes to real estate companies, notably Mori Building. Thereafter, the combination of desire for greater profits, lack of advance publicity, and government disinterest in this genre of architecture, in addition to inadequate maintenance and the lack of amenities (notably individual bathing facilities) now taken for granted, have led to the destruction of most of the complexes in the name of "site development".

Currently the only original building can be seen at a conversion project at Dojunkan building, Omotesando Hills. Some shops and galleries are in the building with its facade of a genuine three-stories apartment.

List of Dōjunkai Apartments

Apartments Japanese name Completed Location
(present-day
"wards")
Demolished (and

replaced[2] by)

Nakanogō Apartments 中之郷アパートメント 1926 Sumida, Tokyo 1990 (Setoru Nakanogō)
Aoyama Apartments 青山アパートメント 19267 Shibuya, Tokyo 2003 (Omotesando Hills)
Yanagishima Apartments 柳島アパートメント 19267 Sumida, Tokyo 1995 (Primēru Yanagishima)
Daikan-yama Apartments 代官山アパートメント 1927 Shibuya, Tokyo 1996 (Daikan-yama Address)
Sumitoshi Apartments
(Sarueura-chō Kyōdō Jūtaku)
住利アパートメント
(猿江裏町共同住宅)
192730 Kōtō, Tokyo 1994 (Twin Tower Sumitoshi)
Kiyosumidōri Apartments
(Higashidaiku-chō Apartments)
清砂通アパートメント
(東大工町アパートメント)
19279 Kōtō, Tokyo 2002
Yamashita-chō Apartments 山下町アパートメント 1927 Naka, Yokohama 1989 (Reiton House)
Hiranuma-chō Apartments 平沼町アパートメント 1927 Nishi, Yokohama 1984 (Monteberte Yokohama)
Minowa Apartments 三ノ輪アパートメント 1928 Arakawa, Tokyo 2009
Mita Apartments 三田アパートメント 1928 Minato, Tokyo 1988 (Shanpōru Mita)
Uguisudani Apartments 鶯谷アパートメント 1929 Arakawa, Tokyo 1999 (Rīdensu Tower)
Uenoshita Apartments 上野下アパートメント 1929 Taitō, Tokyo 2013
Toranomon Apartments 虎ノ門アパートメント 1929 Chiyoda, Tokyo 2000 (Daidō Seimei Kasumigaseki Biru)
Ōtsuka Joshi Apartments 大塚女子アパートメント 1930 Bunkyō, Tokyo 2003
Sumitoshi Apartments
(Higashi-chō Apartments)
住利アパートメント
(東町アパートメント)
1930 Kōtō, Tokyo 1994 (Twin Tower Sumitoshi)
Edogawa Apartments 江戸川アパートメント 1934 Shinjuku, Tokyo 2003

Notes

  1. For a full explanation of the term dōjun, see Seizō Uchida, "Apātomento hausu o wagakuni ni mochikonda Dōjunkai", p. 17, within Hashimoto et al., Kieyuku Dōjunkai Apātomento.
  2. Replacements from Hashimoto et al., Kieyuku Dōjunkai Apātomento, p. 152. This gives the names in Japanese script only. Where the names are obviously in English or pseudo-English, English names have been provided; otherwise, they have been rendered in Hepburn romanization.

Links and further reading

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