A personal narrative
I needed a cheap place to stay while I was in Kyoto and so it happened that this beautiful Japanese girl, who looked like an Asian Cleopatra, told me about the Yoshida-Ryo dormitory. For as little as￥200 (apx.1.50€) per night one is welcome to stay. I was intrigued and very curious about this place, so I made my way there.
I was lost for quite some time in the huge, modern university campus. And as I was walking around, looking at all those grand scary-looking neo complexes, I couldn’t help but wonder if this 105-year-old wooden utilitarian building I was told about, really existed.
It was getting late and I was about to leave the campus when suddenly a huge banner caught my eye, it said something in the Kanji alphabet that I couldn’t read, I could only read the number 105 and I thought that must be it. So I followed a short path lined with tall Gingo trees, the ground covered with bicycles, which is not an unusual sight in Japan.
So there I was at the entrance of Yoshida-Ryo Dormitory. I had a funny feeling in my stomach I somehow could feel the mysterious, intellectual and historical vibration of this place. I walked in and it felt like crossing the portal into an underworld, something I had only experienced in my dreams while meditating. I had a brief exchange with one student at the reception area who put my name down for my overnight stay. Then he disappeared, in fact everything earthly seemed to have disappeared including myself. I was walking around feeling invisible and almost in trance... along those long wooden ghostly corridors. Everywhere I looked, everywhere I walked seemed to open a new universe of wonder and excitement. The corridors and rooms where filled with many objects, that one might call trash, I call it art. It felt like each object fitted right in and was supposed to be there to completed the picture. I was completely taken by this wondrous, exotic place that not only hosts students but also chickens, birds, turtles and fish. Most rooms were locked with a padlock but I could have a peek in some vacant rooms and each one of them carried its unique spirit of a long gone history, almost like an old tree that has been standing there forever surviving many earthquakes, typhoons and other hardships. I was captivated by the outdoor area. An explosion of growth and death, nature in its pure wilderness, sweetened by pretty red vibrant flowers that were setting the scene. It was just wonderful and heartwarming to experience such a unique and divine place.
Sadly the future of Yoshida-Ryo Dormitory is unclear. Nearly a century old and probably the last remaining example of the once common Japanese wooden university dormitory is now facing its closure. Kyoto university wants students out of their self-administrated residence. The official reason: safety risk in the event of an earthquake. Although in agreement on this point, students call for restoration instead of deterioration and demolition of their living space. Looking at the long, rigorous history of Yoshida-Ryo dormitory students will not budge this time round either.
Yoshida-Ryo Dormitory is a safety net for many students with financial difficulties with a low rent of ￥2,500 (apx.19.50€) per month that certainly takes away the burden of financial anxiety and worries to make ends meet. Watanabe, a former resident, told Yahoo News. “I hope that a place like Yoshida-Ryo will always exist in our society. The building itself and the spirit that inhabits the building are inseparable, so if you destroy one of them, you cannot rebuild them easily.”
And having experienced this unique place I couldn’t agree more with Watanabe’s words. Destroying Yoshida-Ryo Dormitory would be like uprooting an ancient tree that has outlived many natural disasters but will it outlive the human hazard? I hope it will.
