Murano Tōgo

Murano Tōgo (born May 15, 1891, Karatsu, Saga prefecture, Japan—died Nov. 26, 1984, Ōsaka) was a Japanese architect particularly noted for the construction of large department stores with solid external walls.

Murano was trained in traditional Japanese styles, but he was gradually drawn to the European modern style. By the 1930s he was earning a reputation as a designer of large buildings, including Sogō stores in Ōsaka (1935) and Tokyo (1957), Takashimaya department stores in Tokyo (1954; an annex) and Okayama (1973), the Maruei Hotel in Nagoya (1953), and the Daimaru department store in Kōbe (1937). For the New Kabuki Theatre in Ōsaka (1958), Murano combined construction in concrete with traditional pagoda-like curves. Among his other notable structures are the office building for Chiyoda Insurance Company (1966) and the Takarazuka Catholic Church (1967).