Church on the Water

The Church on the Water (水の教会, Mizu no kyōkai) stands in Tomamu (トマム), in the village of Shimukappu (占冠村), Hokkaidō (北海道). It was completed in September 1988 by Tadao Ando's office (安藤忠雄, Andō Tadao) for the client Sekihyō Seibaku (関兵精麦), and built by Ōbayashi Corporation (大林組). It is among the works of the 31st BCS Prize of the Japan Federation of Construction Contractors (日本建設業連合会), in 1990.

It belongs to what is called Ando's church trilogy (教会三部作), with the Church of the Light (光の教会, in Osaka) and the Church of the Wind (風の教会, in Hyōgo). For the architect, a "sacred space" (聖なる空間) is a space cut out of nature as it is by human will; here, water, light, greenery and wind (水・光・緑・風) are its material.

Ando set the chapel on a plain in the central mountains of Hokkaidō, northeast of the Yūbari range (夕張山脈), and drew water from a nearby stream to form an artificial lake. The plan joins two overlapping squares, 10 m and 15 m on a side, facing the lake; a free-standing L-shaped wall wraps around them.

The route is staged. One follows the long wall behind the building: the water is heard but not seen, which builds anticipation. Passing through the wall and turning 180 degrees, the surface of the water suddenly spreads out in front. A gentle slope then leads to a passage enclosed in glass on four sides, which the architect calls a "box of light" (光の箱): its top is open, and four cross shapes stand facing one another under the sky. Placed symmetrically, they leave the person walking around them without orientation. A dark, arc-shaped stair descends to the chapel.

There the lake opens out ahead and the cross appears. The hall holds nine spheres of 5 m diameter; it has glass at the front and a lobby behind. A glass wall 5 m by 15 m slides open to free the space, and the cross stands in the middle of the water, which is 15 cm deep. The water is conceived as an abstract mirror, in which the landscape changes from moment to moment.

The building is reinforced concrete: 520 m2 of floor area, one level below ground and one above, on a 6,730 m2 site.

It is a wedding chapel, also used for worship, within the Hoshino Resorts Tomamu resort (星野リゾート トマム). Couples first go down the stair in darkness; when light returns, they meet the world reflected in the still water and the cross standing in it. By day, ceremonies take over the chapel; outside those hours it opens to visitors in fixed slots.

Visits are free of reservation but limited to two slots, since the chapel is used for weddings during the day and visitors are asked not to enter outside them: in the morning from 6:30 to 7:30 (last entry 7:15) and in the evening from 20:30 to 21:30 (last entry 21:25). Allow about fifteen minutes, getting there included. Both slots apply during the resort's opening season; in winter only the evening one is open, and dates and times may change without notice.

By train, get off at Tomamu station (JR line from Shin-Chitose Airport station, changing at Minami-Chitose), where a free 5-minute shuttle bus leaves. By car, leave the Dōtō expressway at the Tomamu interchange.