This paper shows the relationship between the notion of "culture" and architecture in Japan between the 1930s and the 1950s, delving into a history of the building-type called bunka-kaikan (literally, cultural complex). The situation surrounding this building-type radically changed after the war; from the tool for cultural propaganda to the one for the enlightenment, from the facilities of "Japanese culture" to "international culture," whose meaning was actually vague. No architects thought such change might be important architecturally, nor reconsidered the notion itself. They simply regarded the building-type as given and tried to find its design possibilities in its multi-function character.