Moriyama Matsunosuke: Drawing Taiwan's Official Face with Three Prefectural Halls and a Courthouse

30-second overview: Moriyama Matsunosuke was born in Osaka in 1869 and graduated from Tokyo Imperial University. He arrived in Taiwan in 1906 as a consultant to the Governor-General's Office and designed the first fully reinforced-concrete building in the entire Japanese Empire. After his promotion to engineer in 1910, he completed the Taipei Prefectural Hall, Taichung Prefectural Hall, Tainan Prefectural Hall, and Tainan Courthouse in succession, finishing the Railway Ministry and Taiwan Governor-General's Office around 1920. The three prefectural halls today serve as the Control Yuan, Taichung City Government offices, and the National Taiwan Literature Museum respectively—Taiwan's most complete surviving set of "an official-building series by a single architect."

Two Entrances, Two Circulation Paths

The Tainan Courthouse (now the Judicial Museum) has its main entrance facing north, but what truly defines this building's character are the two separate entrances on its east and west sides.¹

The eastern entrance is for judges and court staff. It is topped with a Greek pediment, with eight columns standing on a staircase, their capitals in the Ionic order. Moriyama added a fringed ornamental band above and carved fluting into the shafts, stopping about one-third of the way up, softening what would otherwise be the austere appearance of a courthouse. The western entrance, for the general public, employs the simpler Tuscan order.¹

The circulation paths do not intersect after entry. Judges pass through the vestibule and large hall, proceeding directly down the central corridor into the courtroom area; the public enters from the west, first passing a counter decorated with cast-iron railings—the administrative office of the era.¹ This arrangement accomplishes two things simultaneously: it elevates the judges' authority and protects their safety.

A courthouse floor plan is a blueprint for a judicial system. This is the fastest way to understand Moriyama Matsunosuke.

From Osaka to Taipei

Moriyama Matsunosuke was born in 1869 into a prominent Osaka merchant family; his father, Moriyama Shigeru (森山茂), was a diplomat and member of the House of Peers. He was emotionally distant from his parents from childhood, suffered from hemoptysis, and had a difficult academic path, taking leave from high school multiple times and failing the medical examination for military academy.¹

After graduating from Tokyo Imperial University in 1897, he did not enter a formal architectural practice but instead worked as a consultant at the First Bank's architectural office while teaching at Tokyo Dental Medical School and Tokyo Higher School. He designed the Tokyo Dental Medical Institute and residence for Chiwaaki Moriwaaki (血脇守之助), Japan's "first dentist," earning recognition and catching the attention of Taiwan's then-Civil Administrator Gotō Shinpei (後藤新平). With strong recommendations from his mentor Tatsuno Kingo (辰野金吾), he decided to come to Taiwan.¹

In 1906, Moriyama arrived in Taiwan as a consultant and designed the Taipei Municipal Telephone Exchange—Taiwan's and the entire Japanese Empire's first fully reinforced-concrete building. In 1910 he was promoted to engineer and took charge of the new Governor-General's Office building project.¹

Three Prefectural Halls, One Official Face

The 1910s were a period of intensive construction by the Governor-General's Office. During this era, Moriyama made extensive use of new materials and construction methods, wielding Western architectural vocabulary with ease, leaving behind a dense chronology of works: Taipei Water Works Pumping Station (1909), Taipei Municipal Telephone Exchange (1910), Tainan Post Office (1910), Governor-General's Official Residence (1912), Keelung Post Office (1912), Monopoly Bureau (1913), Taichung Prefectural Hall (1913), Beitou Hot Spring Public Bath (1913), Taipei Prefectural Hall (1915), Tainan Prefectural Hall (1916), Taiwan Governor-General's Office (1919), Railway Ministry (1920).¹

The three prefectural halls are the core of this chronology. The Taipei Prefectural Hall now serves as the Control Yuan; the Taichung Prefectural Hall is now used by various departments of the Taichung City Government; the Tainan Prefectural Hall now houses the National Taiwan Literature Museum. The three buildings are distributed across the north, center, and south, each addressing different site conditions, yet they share a common vocabulary: red brick, washed stone, classical columns, pediments, and towers.¹

Details of the Taichung Prefectural Hall can be found in the Taichung Prefectural Hall entry. The Tainan Prefectural Hall was completed in 1916 and now serves as the National Taiwan Literature Museum, part of a series of hall buildings that were successively completed between 1913 and 1916 alongside the Taipei Prefectural Hall and Taichung Prefectural Hall.¹

Asymmetry and the Demolished Tower

What is most distinctive about the Tainan Courthouse is that it was originally asymmetrical. Western historicist architecture typically pursues balance, with massive domes usually placed at the center as a visual focal point—as Moriyama did with the Taipei Prefectural Hall. But at the Tainan Courthouse, the dome is on the east side, while the western entrance originally had a tall tower, with the composition deliberately skewed to one side.¹

This tower was demolished in 1969 due to cracked walls, and during restoration it was not reconstructed due to insufficient documentation; the museum instead commissioned a public art work to represent the original image. The Tainan Courthouse as seen today actually lacks half of its original silhouette.¹

The main hall is the most elaborately decorated space. At the very top is a pierced dome, evoking traditional coffered ceilings. The central section features twelve composite columns, arranged in groups of three standing on bases, with the upper portions fluted and the lower portions prominently decorated with medallion ornaments, surrounded by rose-patterned plaster relief.¹ The spandrels at the four corners of the dome and the entablatures in all four directions are also covered with carved plaster, with the eastern direction particularly elaborate, as that is where the imperial portrait (Hōan-shitsu) was enshrined during the Japanese colonial period.¹

Courthouse, Climate, and a Historic Verdict

The courtrooms are connected by corridors and feature a central courtyard, which serves to prevent heat buildup and ensure ventilation. The ventilation openings above the counter are decorated with cast iron, functioning both as structure and as facade vocabulary.¹ These designs show that Moriyama was not merely applying classical templates; he had a concrete response to Taiwan's climate.

When the Tainan Courthouse was completed, it had three courtrooms, later expanded to six. The Third Courtroom heard the Tapani Incident case, in which 1,957 people were indicted, with 866 sentenced to death including the ringleader Yu Ching-fang (余清芳), a verdict that sparked controversy over excessive punishment.¹ The building itself thus became not merely an aesthetic object but also a container for important historical events.

After Returning to Japan

In 1915, Moriyama resigned from his position due to ill health and returned to Japan, but was recalled by the Governor-General's Office half a year later to continue as engineer. In 1921 he was finally granted retirement and returned to Japan to operate an architectural practice.¹

After leaving Taiwan, he still designed buildings related to the island: the Takasago Dormitory (1922) and the Taiwan Pavilion (1927) in the Shinjuku Imperial Garden. The Taiwan Pavilion was built to celebrate the Showa Emperor's marriage, constructed of reinforced concrete but with an upturned eaves roof, achieving balance between tropical atmosphere and modern construction.¹

One Set of Buildings, Two Readings

When the Taipei Prefectural Hall, Taichung Prefectural Hall, Tainan Prefectural Hall, and Tainan Courthouse are viewed together, a clear intention emerges: to blanket Taiwan's western regions with the same architectural language expressing the empire's administrative, judicial, and symbolic power. This language was effective because it remains recognizable today as the appearance of "official architecture."

Another reading is equally valid. The red brick of these halls came from Taiwan, the washed stone from the hands of Taiwan's craftsmen, the climate control was designed for Taiwan's humid heat, and after the war they were transformed into the Control Yuan, city government offices, and a literature museum. The face drawn by the colonizer was later received, used, and rewritten by this island, becoming today's public architectural heritage.

Further reading:

• Taiwan Architecture — The broader context from indigenous slate houses and Japanese colonial halls to contemporary public architecture
• Taichung Prefectural Hall — Architectural details of four-stage expansion and corner-site configuration

References