SEIKO HOUSE GINZA
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SEIKO HOUSE GINZA (セイコーハウス銀座 Seikō Hausu Ginza), known before 2022 as the Wako Main Building (和光本館 Wakō Honkan)[1] and colloquially as the Ginza Wako (銀座和光 Ginza Wakō), is a famous interwar-period building and clock tower in Ginza, Chuo, Tokyo. Inaugurated on June 10, 1932,[1] it is the headquarters of retail company Wako as well as the registered office of its parent company Seiko,[2][3] and is home to multiple Seiko facilities, including the largest Wako department store.[4] Though not as prominent a Tokyo landmark as places like Tokyo Tower or the National Diet Building, the Wako Main Building's appearance during Godzilla's iconic rampage in his 1954 debut film has led to it making several appearances throughout the Godzilla franchise, most recently in the 2023 film Godzilla Minus One.
History
- Godzilla (1954)
- King Kong vs. Godzilla (1963) [U.S. version]
- Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995)
- Sinking of Japan (2006)
- A Giant Warrior Descends on Tokyo (2012)
- Shin Godzilla (2016)
- Godzilla Appears at Godzilla Fest (2020)
- Godzilla Singular Point (TV 2021) [episodes 9-10]
- Godzilla Minus One (2023)
Showa era
Godzilla
During Godzilla's rampage through Tokyo, he eventually turned his attention to Ginza, setting much of the district ablaze. At one point, he approached the Wako Main Building, and roared at it as its clock struck eleven. He then effortlessly demolished the clock tower with a single swipe of his paw, causing the underlying building to partially collapse and send rubble crashing to the ground. With the chimes silenced, Godzilla continued on his way.
King Kong vs. Godzilla
During establishing shots of Ginza which were added to John Beck's U.S. cut of the film, the Wako Main Building is visible.
Heisei era
Godzilla vs. Destoroyah
In a sequence depicting a potential scenario where Godzilla's meltdown would result in an explosion of globally-catastrophic proportions, the Wako Main Building served as ground zero for Godzilla's meltdown. He exploded shortly after walking past the building, instantly vaporizing it along with the National Diet Building, Tokyo Tower and much of the surrounding area. The titanic explosion proceeded to destroy the rest of Tokyo shortly thereafter, commencing a cataclysm that would bring about an end to life on Earth.
Sinking of Japan
In the aftermath of a massive earthquake, several wards and districts of Tokyo were affected by land subsidence, and were inundated by water, with Ginza being among them. Alongside the other buildings in the area, the Wako Main Building was shown being flooded.
Reiwa era
Shin Godzilla
After destroying the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit bombers that had attacked and injured him with Massive Ordnance Penetrator bunker busters, Godzilla began firing his atomic breath indiscriminately at Tokyo, destroying great swathes of the city in mere minutes. The Wako Main Building was among the buildings destroyed in this attack; Godzilla's atomic breath cut through the building's roof below its clock tower, cleanly shearing off the top of the building. Immediately afterwards, as the roof and its clock began to fall towards the ground, the remainder of the building was caught in the ensuing fireball, presumably destroying it in its entirety.
Godzilla Minus One
In 1947, with Japan still under the Allied military occupation following the end of World War II, the Wako Main Building was in use as a post exchange facility by Allied soldiers and military staff. During Godzilla's assault on Ginza, he briefly stopped near the Wako building when a detachment of Type 4 Chi-To medium tanks began firing on him from the National Diet Building. The Wako building was almost directly in the path of the shockwave of the nuclear explosion generated by Godzilla's atomic breath, and thousands of civilians, Noriko Oishi and Koichi Shikishima included, were caught in the blast. However, a fraction of a second before it struck, Noriko pushed Shikishima to safety into an alley adjacent to the Wako Main Building, just before she was carried away by the shockwave. As the dust cleared, the Wako Main Building was revealed to still be standing, but was almost entirely destroyed, with its clock tower leaning dangerously to one side.
Attractions
- Monster Planet of Godzilla (1994)
Monster Planet of Godzilla
When an alien Godzilla was transported to Chiyoda, Tokyo from the Monster Planet, he destroyed part of Tokyo Station before moving on to Ginza, traveling down Chuo-dori Street toward the Wako Main Building. There he was intercepted by fighter jets, then an alien Mothra, and finally the spaceship Earth. Though Godzilla shrugged off the former two, the Earth managed to coat him and the other alien monsters in a powder which encapsulated them in bubbles and floated them back to their planet.
Books
Trivia
- SEIKO HOUSE GINZA is 30.3 meters tall from its base to its roof, with the clock tower adding 9.09 meters and the lightning rod another 8 meters.[1]
References
This is a list of references for SEIKO HOUSE GINZA. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]
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