St. Mary’s Cathedral Tokyo is located in Bunkyo ward, Tokyo.

“Cathedral” is an important church in catholic. The characteristic of Catholic can be said their concerns on Mother Mary, class system with the pope at top and the seven sacraments (Baptism, Confirmation or Chirsmation, Eucharist, Penance, Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders, and Matrimony).

Parish divides a church and the head of each parish is called the bishop. There are 16 parishes in Japan and in each parish, there are many small parish as well.

Cathedral

Tange Kenzo, who worked on Tokyo Metropolitan Government building, designed the cathedral that stands today.
It was finished at the same year when Tokyo Olympic was held, in 1964.
The motif is the Ten Commandments and a moving tent that Jewish used.

Using the latest technology back then, the cathedral became famous for a modern architecture church. Also, the building is in a unique style that it is hard to believe that it was built 40 years ago.
If you look at it from birds-eye point of view, it is in a cross shape.

Since it is dark in the inside, you can immediately notice where the light comes from. The warm sunlight shines from the slit behind the cross on an altar.

The slits rise up and intercross at the top, drawing a cross above you.
There is a top light there, giving us soft light.

The cathedral is constructed by 8 layers of concrete shells and the highest point is 40m high. The high roof helps your spirit rise.

The solemn atmosphere where the light and the dark creates a harmony of contrast with rising space, lights pouring in, elegant nave connecting the pipe organ and altar, and the aisles embracing the light is beautiful.

7 seconds of echo (when the seats are empty)

There are no columns inside the cathedral, creating a one huge open space inside.
This special sound effect is similar to those stone churches during the Renaissance and Baroque style and large cathedral in Europe also have the equal quality of echoes.
Normal concert halls such as Suntory Hall have only echoes of 2 seconds so the difference is significant.
There is one of the largest pipe organ in Japan and its sound echoes through the building like a trumpet, staying close to the song and to the prayers.

Pipe Organ

One of the largest pipe organ in Japan.

It took about a year and a half to be placed inside the St. Mary’s Cathedra Tokyo.
Mascioni, a company in Italy, made the organ. This company also made the pipe organ of Duomo in Milano in 1938.Lorenzo Gielmi, an organist and a researcher, was invited as an art consultant.
When the organ was being built in the church, the artisan of Mascioni came to Japan, stayed for month to build, and another month to adjust the sound.
This organ is Rückpositiv.
He motif of the sound was suggested by Gielmi, the sound of San Maurizio Church, a church in Milano, Italy built in the 16th century during the peak of Renaissance. The characteristic of this sound is that it is said to be close to the sound of human, the singing voice of human being.

The pipe organ is constructed by several ten thousands parts.
There are 3122 pipes, and among them 2963 are made by alloy (lead and tin) and 159 are wood.
The size is 1cm to 5m in length and 1cm to 20cm in diameter.
The company also makes the alloy. 3122 pipes are made one by one by hand, adjusted to the level of mm to create the sound.

There are 3 levels of keyboard in the middle, 1 level for the fee. The console have total of 204 keys.

Furthermore, there are knobs on both sides. They are called stop and have 46 of them.
There is a switch on the third keyboard to memorize the stop.
Therefore, you can smoothly change the stop while performing.
Each stop has a different sound and you can even play together a different sound at the same time.
The stop called “principle” is especially important. All of the other stops are adjusted as the “principle” for the base.
This pipe organ also has a unique sound mimicking the sound of birds chirping.

Since this pipe organ is made out of wood, the air is always under control, adjusting the humidity when necessary. Also, since the wood is from Milano, Italy, the temperature and humidity is adjusted to match the weather there.

Address:〒112-0014 3-16-15 Sekiguchi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo
Hours:9:00~17:00 (12:00~13:00 closed)
Access:From JR Yamanote Line Mejiro Station, ride a bus heading Shinjuku Station Nishiguchi from No.5 bus terminal and get off at Chinzanso Stop.
15 minutes walk from Tokyo Metro Yurakucho Line Edogawabashi Station exit 1a, 1b
URL:https://www.tokyo.catholic.jp/text/cathedral/katedoraltoha.htm