Takatori Catholic Church　 is a Catholic church in :Nagata-ku, Kobe, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. It lies a fifteen minute walk from Takatori Station

Takatori Station (Hyogo)

is a railway station on the JR West San'yō Main Line in Suma-ku, Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. Only local trains stop at Takatori Station...

 in Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture

Hyogo Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region on Honshū island. The capital is Kobe.The prefecture's name was previously alternately spelled as Hiogo.- History :...

, Japan.

History

The church was founded in 1927http://phknd.tea-nifty.com/phknd/2004/10/post_8caf.html.　In 1929 the first church building for its own was consecrated http://phknd.tea-nifty.com/phknd/2009/08/post-5948.html.

Earthquake and Takatori Church

Great Hanshin earthquake

Great Hanshin earthquake

The Great Hanshin earthquake, or Kobe earthquake, was an earthquake that occurred on Tuesday, January 17, 1995, at 05:46 JST in the southern part of Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. It measured 6.8 on the moment magnitude scale , and Mj7.3 on JMA magnitude scale. The tremors lasted for approximately 20...

, on January 17, 1995, destroyed the building of the church at that time as well as other structures in neighborhood. The disaster and recovery process from it has influenced the church and the local community including secular and non-Catholic one, and have them build a tight relationship.

Takatori Church and social sector

After the disaster, the community of the Takatori parish, which a priest Hiroshi Kanda pastured at that time, decided to offer the location as a base of disaster relief, and named it "Takatori Church Rescue Base" first, which would be later renamed "Takatori Rescue Base". The Rescue Base offered a lodge for volunteers who gathered from many parts of Japan. Various activities for helping disaster victims were organized at the Base from soup kitchen to cleansing debris. Community radio

Community radio

Community radio is a type of radio service, that offers a third model of radio broadcasting beyond commercial broadcasting and public broadcasting. Community stations can serve geographic communities and communities of interest...

 for non-Japanese residents started, aiming those who had difficulties to catch up information in emergency because of their language barriers, first for both Korean and Vietnamese speaking communities but soon later for other language communities, which has been no small portions of the parish because of international migration

International migration

International migration occurs when peoples cross state boundaries and stay in the host state for some minimum length of time. Migration occurs for many reasons. Many people leave their home countries in order to look for economic opportunities in another country. Others migrate to be with family...

.

In 2000 Takatori Church Rescue Base, which was no legal entity, was reorganized into a non-profit entity "Takatori Community Center". It consists of three types of interest groups: secular local community representatives, religious community representatives, that is, of Takatori Church and non-profits which are based in Takatori neighborhood. Currently Hiroshi Kanda is the chair of its board of trustees.

In 2006 Takatori Community Center was awarded by Japan Foundation

Japan Foundation

The was established in 1972 by an Act of the Japanese Diet as a special legal entity to undertake international dissemination of Japanese culture, and became an independent administrative institution under the jurisdiction of the Foreign Ministry of Japan on 1 October 2003 under the "Independent...

, a governmental funding non-profit, honoring its community-based cultural exchange.

Paper Dome

On September 17, 1995, the church got a temporary church building using paper tubes as structural elements. It was designed on a pro-bono basis by Shigeru Ban

Shigeru Ban

Shigeru Ban is an accomplished Japanese and international architect, most famous for his innovative work with paper, particularly recycled cardboard paper tubes used to quickly and efficiently house disaster victims...

, internationally known Japanese architect

Architect

An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...

 who is renowned for his paper tube structures and buildings. This temporary structure was nicknamed "Paper Dome".

The church community has later planned to build a permanent building and the "Paper Dome" was deconstructed in 2005. In the same year the structure was donated to a Catholic community in Nantou County

Nantou County

Nantou County is the second largest county of Taiwan. It is also the only landlocked county in Taiwan. Its name derives from the Hoanya Taiwanese aboriginal word Ramtau. Nantou County is officially administered as a county of Taiwan....

, Taiwan

Taiwan

Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

 which had suffered the 921 Earthquake

921 earthquake

The 921 earthquake , also known as Jiji earthquake , was a 7.3 Ms or 7.6 Mw earthquake which occurred at 1:47:12 am local time in Jiji , Nantou County, Taiwan. 2,415 people were killed, 11,305 injured, and NT$300 billion worth of damage was done...

 in 1999. The deconstructed structure was shipped in 2006 to Taiwan, reconstructed there and has been reused as a place of worship.

External links

• Kenchiqoo.net (in Japanese)

34.64921°N 135.139889°W