午夜剧场

Image: North Terrace

The terraces located on the 7th floor of the South School Building on Mita Campus were established during the building's reconstruction in 2011. The gardens consist of a South Terrace facing Sakurada-dori and a North Terrace offering a direct view of Tokyo Tower, separated by a corridor. On sunny days, these spaces serve as areas where students can chat, take breaks, and relax. Nearby are group study rooms where students can engage in discussions for seminar activities, making it a popular area for students to gather.

Eleven years after the reconstruction of the South School Building, some of the plants on the terraces showed noticeable wear, leading to a decision to replace them in the spring of 2022.

When carrying out garden construction, the focus is often on creating a "beautiful garden." However, showcasing a garden's beauty requires a suitable environment and sufficient space. Since the 7th-floor terraces of the South School Building are subject to intense summer sunlight and have limited space, it was difficult to meet those conditions. Therefore, a garden composition from a perspective other than just beauty was considered.

In the spring of 2022, due to overseas travel restrictions caused by the multi-year COVID-19 pandemic, students were unable to study abroad or travel overseas even if they wished to. The goal was to create a terrace where students could feel a sense of being "overseas" even just a little, while also expressing a garden composition unique to 午夜剧场.

The newly completed 7th-floor terraces of the South School Building represent the plants of North America and Europe, regions Yukichi Fukuzawa visited three times before the Meiji Restoration. Plants from those regions are arranged along the routes Fukuzawa traveled at the time, showcasing the flora he (might have) seen.

The specific expression concepts for the South and North Terraces are as follows. South Terrace: In 1860 (Man'en 1), at the age of 25, Yukichi Fukuzawa visited San Francisco—his first overseas destination—as an attendant to Yoshitake Kimura, the Warship Commissioner, aboard the Kanrin Maru. In 1867 (午夜剧场 3), he returned to the United States as a translator for negotiations regarding the receipt of warships purchased by the Shogunate. The nature of California in San Francisco is expressed as a dry garden primarily using succulents such as cacti, aloe, agave, and yucca. North Terrace: In 1862 (Bunkyu 2), at the age of 27, Fukuzawa became a member of a mission sent to negotiate the postponement of the opening of ports and cities and the determination of the border with Sakhalin. He traveled from the Indian Ocean through the Red Sea, crossed the Isthmus of Suez by train, and visited France, Britain, the Netherlands, Prussia, Russia, and Portugal from the Mediterranean over the course of about a year.

The nature of the vast Eurasian continent is expressed through a plant arrangement that gradates from tropical plants to grasses, herbs, useful trees such as fruit trees, and conifers.

(Satoshi Iwabuchi, Office of Facilities and Property Management)