Living Room

The living room of Seika Dormitory holds afternoon light and dust in roughly equal measure. Furniture sits where residents left it. Wallpaper pulls away from the walls in long curls. There is no sign of a considered departure. Seika Dormitory, known in Japanese as 清華寮 (Seika-ryō), was built in 1927 by the 学租財団 (Gakuso Foundation), a body affiliated with the Taiwan Governor-General's Office. The structure was reinforced concrete, three storeys above ground with a basement level, set on 3,100 square metres of national land in Kohinata, Bunkyo-ku, central Tokyo. Its original purpose was housing for Taiwanese students studying in the capital during Japan's colonial administration of Taiwan. The building's original name was 高砂寮 (Takasago-ryō); it was renamed Seika-ryō in 1946, after Japan's surrender ended colonial rule and dissolved the administrative bodies that had funded and governed it. The dormitory continued to function for the next six decades, housing Taiwanese, Chinese and Japanese residents on monthly rents of approximately ¥8,000. Around 40 people in 30 households were still living there when a fire broke out in July 2007. Two residents died; seven others were hospitalised. Approximately 70 per cent of the building was destroyed. The Kanto Finance Bureau sealed the structure. The residents who remained were displaced, and most of what they owned stayed inside. The building sat sealed in a quiet Bunkyo-ku neighbourhood for nearly six years. When this photograph was taken in 2012, the living room still held its furniture, its wallpaper, and the particular quality of light that comes through a window no one has opened in a long time. The dormitory was demolished in 2013. The site reopened in 2019 as グランヴィ小日向 (Grand Vie Kohinata), a residential aged care facility with 122 rooms.