Takatori Catholic Church () is a Catholic church in :Nagata-ku, Kobe,

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. It is a fifteen-minute walk from Takatori Station in Kobe,

Hyōgo Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Hyōgo Prefecture has a population of 5,469,762 () and a geographic area of . Hyōgo Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the east, Osaka Prefecture to th ...

, Japan.

History

The church was founded in 1927 and was consecrated in 1929.

Earthquake and Takatori Church

On January 17, 1995, the

Great Hanshin earthquake The Great Hanshin Earthquake (, ) occurred on January 17, 1995, at 05:46:53 JST in the southern part of Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, including the region of Hanshin. It measured 6.9 on the moment magnitude scale and had a maximum intensity of 7 o ...

destroyed the original church building as well as other structures in the vicinity. The church became an increasingly important part of the community in the wake of the earthquake and during the recovery and rebuilding that took place afterward.

Takatori Community Center

After the earthquake, Takatori parish, under the guidance of Father Hiroshi Kanda, was turned into a disaster relief center, named the "Takatori Church Rescue Base", and later renamed to the "Takatori Rescue Base". The Rescue Base offered a place to stay for volunteers who gathered from around Japan. Disaster relief such as soup kitchens and cleaning of debris was organized at the Base. Communications regarding the disaster and relief efforts for the various non-Japanese speaking members of the community were disseminated from the church. In 2000, the Takatori Church Rescue Base, was reorganized into a non-profit entity called the "Takatori Community Center." The three main groups that utilize the center are secular local community representatives, the Takatori Church and non-profits based in the Takatori district. Currently, Hiroshi Kanda is the chair of its board of trustees. In 2006, the Takatori Community Center was awarded by the

Japan Foundation The is a Japanese foundation that spreads Japanese culture around the world. Based in Tokyo, it was established in 1972 by an Act of the National Diet as a special legal entity to undertake international dissemination of Japanese culture. I ...

, a government funded non-profit, honoring its community-based cultural exchange.

Paper Dome

On September 17, 1995, in light of the earthquake, a temporary church building made of paper tubes was designed and built on a

pro-bono ( English: 'for the public good'), usually shortened to , is a Latin phrase for professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment. The term traditionally referred to provision of legal services by legal professionals for people who a ...

basis by

Shigeru Ban Biography
, The Hyatt Foundation, retrieved 26 March 2014 is a Japanese architect, known for his i ...

, an internationally known Japanese

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

who is renowned for his paper tube structures and buildings. This temporary church structure was nicknamed the "Paper Dome". After the Takatori parish community decided to build a larger, permanent church building, the "Paper Dome" was deconstructed in 2005. Arrangements were made to donate it to a Catholic community in

Nantou County Nantou is the second largest County (Taiwan), county of Taiwan by area, located in the central part of the country. It is also the only non-coastal county in Taiwan. Its name derives from the Hoanya people, Hoanya Taiwanese aborigines, Taiwanese ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

, which had suffered from the (21 September 1999)

921 earthquake The Chi-Chi earthquake (later also known as the Jiji earthquake, 921 Earthquake, or the great earthquake of September 21), was a 7.3 ML or 7.7 Mw earthquake which occurred in Jiji (Chi-Chi), Nantou County, Taiwan on 21 September 199 ...

; the parts were shipped to Taiwan in 2006, and after two years of planning, were reconstructed at the new site in 2008. The reconstruction took four months, and it is used as a place of worship as well as a tourist attraction.

Paper Dome The Paper Dome () is a temporary church building constructed using paper tubes as structural elements. It was designed on a pro-bono basis by Shigeru Ban, a Japanese architect who is known for his paper tube structures and buildings. This tempo ...

The article

about the current installation gives more details about its original construction.

References

External links

Kenchiqoo.net
(in Japanese){{coord, 34.64921, 135.139889, format=dms, display=title, type:landmark_region:JP_scale:10000 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Japan Religious buildings and structures in Kobe Shigeru Ban buildings