This is one of the more prominent branch schools in Toga Village that still stands today. The full name was Toga Elementary School Kitamamedani Branch School 利賀小学校北豆谷分校. I'm not completely sure about its history, but I think it may have opened in 1930 as Oshiba Winter Branch School or at the same time.
Originally, the branch school was built between Kitamamedani neighborhood and the remnants of the now abandoned settlement of Oshiba. That building also still stands today and it's been remodeled as a guest house (bed & breakfast). In the late 1950s or 60s, a new concrete building was built in the center of Kitamamedani neighborhood, and that is the prominent building.
It has such a weird space-age design with its spherical windows in the stairwell. As a school, it continued to operate until 1968 when it was closed. After that, it was used as a community center. The gymnasium was remodeled as a meeting/banquet hall lined with Tatami mats. On the wall were a string of awards with the last one dated 2003.
The whole hall looked beautiful if it wasn't for the piles of bat feces on the ground. I found a newspaper dated 2015, so maybe that was the last time it was used for anything.
While the main entrance had been boarded shut, the doors to the gymnasium were open. The gymnasium hall led into the main building, which had a kitchen, bathrooms, and a few office rooms. Moving to the second and third floors were rooms that were used as classrooms, but had been converted to an apartment.
It seems pretty weird, but many of these old schools had people living in them after they closed. They were probably pretty cheap and affordable for people. Also, they were probably really warm and stable in winter compared with wooden homes.
Update: I visited the school again a few weeks later, and there was temporary housing set up on the school grounds. A nearby car was marked as Toga Dam, so I guess the dam needs extra manpower in summer for some reason. Looking through Google Maps, there was also temporary housing set up in 2023 and 2021, so maybe this is routine for the dam and other construction projects in the area.
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