A campus tour of Kobe College has drawn many visitors to the private women's college in recent years. But rather than prospective students, most are architectural buffs wishing to see the campus' Spanish mission-style buildings designed by American missionary and architect William Merrell Vories (1880-1964).
An hourlong tour, led by student guides and offered several times a year, takes participants around the campus in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, where 12 buildings designed by Vories and completed in the 1930s were designated national important cultural properties by the government in 2014.
At a recent tour on a Saturday in late March, the guides led a group of 60 through the Vories landmarks while explaining the architectural details.