Schools are probably the most common abandoned places in Japan. Rare in populated areas, they can be found by the dozen in the countryside. In all of Japan there must be hundreds, nevertheless I only wrote about two of them so far (the *F# Elementary School* and the *North Korean School in Gifu*). The main reason for that is that until last year I did almost all of my explorations by using public transportation – and the vast majority of those abandoned schools are in the middle of nowhere, often part of (almost) deserted villages. By now I’ve been to about eight or ten *haikyo* schools (a.k.a. haikou), though most of them were either boarded up, under security supervision or in really bad condition.
The Kyoto Countryside School on the other hand turned out to be a hidden gem – and to keep it that way I gave it this rather generic name…
When my buddy Dan and I drove up to the Kyoto Countryside School in a stunningly beautiful picture book village in the middle of the mountains I kind of had a bad feeling. The school itself was in rather good condition and the grass in front of it was about 10 to 15 centimeters high – higher than usual, but not “abandoned for 20 years” high; implying that somebody was still taking care of the school and its side-buildings. But we were lucky… While the front entrance and all the windows were locked, the back entrance was open; and so was the kitchen building.
Sadly I don’t know much about the history of the school, only that it was closed 22 years prior to our visit – which was hard to believe as pretty much all rooms, despite being almost empty, looked like they were just closed for the summer. I am actually pretty sure that the school building is still used every once in a while, probably for some village celebrations or stuff like that.
Visiting the Kyoto Countryside School was part of a one day urbex trip in July; something I tend to avoid, because Japanese summers are nasty – hot, humid and full of insects as well as other animals you don’t want to run into. Luckily the school was in almost pristine condition, one of the cleanest places I have ever explored; bug free! But it was a typical summer day, just past high noon, and being in the mountains helped surprisingly little.
A sweaty, yet interesting exploration – opening that door was like stepping into the past, and in that regard it reminded me of the *Old Higashi-Aoyama Station* I wrote about last week. Most rooms were empty, except for the secretariat… and things on the walls. Photos, relics of art classes, info posters, mirrors. One room has a handwritten banner, showing Japanese number units. 10.000 = man, 100.000.000 = oku, and so on. The longest number was a 1 with 88 zeros, 4 kanji reading muryoutaisuu – I’m pretty sure 99.999% of the Japanese population haven’t heard of that number. But finds like that made this exploration so much fun. If you just looked through the windows you probably would have thought “Boooooring!”, but once inside the place revealed dozens of little things that caught me eye; my favorite part being the gorgeous wooden hallway, perfectly lit at that time of the day.
Surprisingly interesting was the most western part of the building, separated by a now locked door, but accessible from the outside: a small storage room full of left behind school books and the school’s toilet – with song sheets above the tiny pissoirs and old electric wiring along the wooden ceiling, probably added years after the school was built…
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This is fascinating, thanks for posting it. I was especially interested since my son’s elementary school (he is now 25), 2 blocks from our house, is being torn down and replaced. It’s still standing right now but empty. In August a sale was held of excess items and the public could attend and also tour the school. I visited it and bought a box of colored chalk from I think the 1960’s – must have been lost in a cabinet. It was a somewhat sad thing to go through the halls and know that soon it will all be gone and so many schoolchildren’s memories along with it.
I did notice the same thing you had in your photos – so much of it looked like no one cared to take much with them. There is still children’s artwork on the walls – outside my son’s second grade classrooms there were still portraits the kids had done of themselves in that class that last year. Somehow that really underlined the idea that the school’s life is finished – no new artwork will be hung on the walls again.No new portraits here again.
Hey Claudia,
Thanks a lot for your interesting comment! I’ve never heard of sales at schools to get rid of the remaining interior, though I am sure quite a few old students would be interested in buying their old chair or other memorabilia.
Yeah, the school felt a little bit like part of an open air museum. Add some tables and tiny chairs and it would be perfect for a place like that. Which reminds me that I really have to go to Meiji Mura one day! (Meiji Mura is an open air museum in Nagoya where they collected Meiji era buildings from all over Japan.)
This makes me think of my old grade school. It was a much older building than this abandoned school. Mine was built in the late 1890s. I can still visit the building, however it’s now an adminstration office building for a state college campus.
It must costs quite a fortune to maintain and heat that building… 🙂
Die Fotos sind große Klasse
Vielen Dank – freut mich, dass sie dir gefallen!
Wonderful find – great photos – I especially like the dark hallway. low angle shot. Thanks too for translating the sign in the bathroom ‘:-)
Thanks a lot, Robert! I was sitting and crouching on that wooden floor for quite a while, experimenting with angles and brightness. Three photos made it into the gallery, at least a dozen didn’t… 🙂
Those are pretty good shooting odds 🙂
Your photos are stunning – especially the HDR and ones validating the journey. Have fun!
Thanks a lot, Tania! I already created some more HDR photos, so I will update that gallery soon, maybe in a week or two. (In addition to the regular Tuesday update…)
The first picture of the school’s colorful exterior made me feel like it would have been such fun to be a kid attending classes there. Thank you for this great article, Florian!
Thanks for your kind words, Claire! The school in general was surprisingly colorful. I wonder how many kids went there. Probably something like 20, spreading over six grades.
Another great find – I really want that dinosaur.
Hey Maria,
I wonder if there is a way to get the dinosaur out of the building… Most of the doors were quite low / narrow.
Oh! Good point. Perhaps it was constructed onsite? Intriguing.
I love your points of views. Amazing!!
Thanks a lot! There will be more soon…
Very cool! I love old abandon buildings!
Despite being such a densely populated country, Japan is a wonderland for urban explorers.
Really poignant photos — makes me think of how many children were in this school. Fascinating. 🙂
Thanks, Jo! Rather intact places like that are amazing. They spark imagination much more than completely trashed or emptied ones.
Hi Florian! Glad to have come across your blog… I miss Japan, in general and Kyoto in particular… Friendly thoughts from Toulouse, France & good luck in all your endeavours… alles gute, Mélanie
Thanks, Mélanie!
I think one of the reasons why I am still in Japan is that I am worried that I would miss it too much if I would move away – Kansai is such a lovely area to live in…