ABSTRACT
Japanese government ministries and banks, railway stations and factories, schools and churches, libraries and hospitals, were as convincing in their formal attributes as any buildings of similar purpose in Europe or America. The Japanese had already mastered the architectural vocabulary of classical revival by the time they had spelled out their new governmental order in the constitution of 1889; before the ink had dried on the Imperial Rescript on Education of 1890 Japanese primary school students throughout the nation were engaged in the joys of inscribing their names into Western-style lift-top desks in 28,000 timber-floored schools with sash-windows and hinged doors. So effective are these buildings as models of Western-style architecture that, after spending only a few minutes inside, it is easy to forget that one is actually in Japan.
