Kingo Tatsuno

Tatsuno was one of Japan’s celebrated western-style architects of the Meiji Period, when Japan rapidly changed from a feudal, samurai-led society into a modern society modelled on western principals. He apprenticed under Josiah Conder, a British architect employed by the Meiji government and considered to be the father of modern Japanese architecture.

Tatsuno is most well-known for building the Neo-Baroque Bank of Japan’s head office and Tokyo Station, the latter is celebrated for his European renaissance design, which includes the extensive use of red brick facades and white granite flourishes. Tatsuno designed the head branch of a local bank which has become one of Oita City’s oldest landmark buildings. Built in 1915, it is easily recognisable as work by Tatsuno through its design similarities to Tokyo Station. In recent years it has been repurposed as the Oita Made showroom and coffee shop and now known as the Akarenga-kan, or Red Brick Building, an appellation derived from its facade.