Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture, Japan

Designed by Kengo Kuma, the exterior of the new Kadokawa Cultural Museum is covered with 20,000 granite plates that give the impression that the building has cracked open the ground to rise above the surface.

The new museum is located in the Higashitokorozawa-Wada district of Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture of Japan, 19 miles from central Tokyo.

The area includes new tourist destinations like an anime-inspired hotel and a shrine also designed by Kuma.

Known for his use of natural materials, it’s not unusual Kuma would use granite to emphasize the design for his new cultural building.

“It represents the Earth’s energy that breaks through the ground,” states Kuma.

The museum, the core facility of the Tokorozawa Sakura Town cultural complex currently under construction, pre-opened last August.

The entire sprawling Sakura Town complex is built on the ruins of a sewerage center covering about 40,000 square meters and is a joint project of the Tokorozawa city government and leading publisher Kadokawa Corp.

In one corner of the premises stands the five-storey Kadokawa Culture Museum, which houses a library and a gallery.

The grand entrance features monumental front steps.

The interior space is located on the fourth floor of a museum and acts as both a library and a theater space.

Projection mapping uses the 500,000 books as part of varying exhibits that give the space its secondary function.

Screens are also scattered across the shelving arrangement to support exhibitions. For those more interested in reading the books themselves, they can access some of the upper levels by following a series of metal walkways that ascend up the 26-foot-tall library.

Kuma designed a unique wood shelving system that reaches floor to ceiling and continues across with floating wooden panels.

Higher up, you can find a café, shop, restaurant, and a whole floor dedicated to the art of anime.

Seigow Matsuoka, director of the Kadokawa Culture Museum, believes that this building is an opportunity to incite imagination that can create positive and meaningful change.

Architects: Kengo Kuma and Associates
Client: Tokorozawa City Government and Kadokawa Corp.
Photographers: Ryosuke Kosuge