Former Imperial Guards Division Headquarters

The Former Imperial Guards Division Headquarters (旧近衛師団司令部庁舎) is a two-story red-brick building located at the southern edge of Kitanomaru Park in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo. Designed by army engineer Tamura Yasushi (田村鎮) and completed in 1910 (Meiji 43), it features a simple Gothic style with an octagonal tower at the central entrance and a slate roof, representing one of the finest surviving examples of Meiji-era military architecture.

The Imperial Guards Division (近衛師団, Konoe Shidan) was the elite military formation tasked with the defense of the Emperor and the Imperial Palace. The headquarters building served as the administrative and command center for this prestigious unit from its completion until the end of World War II.

On the night of August 14–15, 1945, the building became the epicenter of the Kyūjō Incident (宮城事件), Japan's most dramatic last-ditch attempt to prevent surrender. After Emperor Hirohito decided to accept the Potsdam Declaration and recorded the Jewel Voice Broadcast (玉音放送) announcing Japan's capitulation, a group of young army officers led by Major Kenji Hatanaka (畑中健二), Lieutenant Colonel Jiro Shiizaki (椎崎二郎), and others from the War Ministry Staff Office launched a desperate coup d'état.

Shortly after midnight on August 15, Hatanaka and his co-conspirators went to this headquarters building to confront Lieutenant General Takeshi Mori (森赳), commander of the 1st Imperial Guards Division, seeking his support and the use of his troops to seize the Imperial Palace. When General Mori refused to cooperate, Hatanaka murdered him — the killing reportedly carried out by Captain Uehara with a sword. Hatanaka then forged Imperial Guards Division Strategic Order No. 584 using Mori's official seal, mobilizing the 2nd Regiment of the Imperial Guards to occupy the Imperial Palace grounds, seal off all entrances, and cut communications.

The rebels searched the Palace through the night seeking the recording of the Emperor's surrender broadcast, intending to destroy it and prevent its airing. They failed to find it. By dawn, General Shizuichi Tanaka (田中静壱), commander of the Eastern District Army, arrived and personally countermanded the forged orders, persuading the Guards troops to stand down. Hatanaka attempted one final gambit at NHK broadcasting studios but was turned away. He shot himself on the plaza in front of the Imperial Palace around 11:00 AM on August 15, just as the Emperor's recorded surrender message was broadcast to the nation.

After the war, the Imperial Household Police used the building as staff quarters. It sat vacant from 1963 until preservation efforts led by architect Taniguchi Yoshiro saved it from demolition. In 1972, it was designated a National Important Cultural Property (国指定重要文化財). From 1977 to 2020, it served as the Crafts Gallery (工芸館) of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (MOMAT). After the Crafts Gallery relocated to Kanazawa in 2020, the building has been open for limited exterior and interior viewing on select days.