J-Drama Pilgrimage | わたしを離さないで Never Let Me Go (2016) — 宇都宮大学 峰ヶ丘講堂 / Yoko Gakuen Exterior & Assembly Hall

Drama: TBS『わたしを離さないで』 / Watashi wo Hanasanaide / Never Let Me Go (2016), scoped specifically to the original 10-episode 2016 TBS television adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel.

Episode 1, broadcast 15 January 2016, establishes the isolated boarding school 陽光学苑 / Yoko Gakuen where Kyoko, Tomohiko and Miwa grow up. The Nationwide Filming Location Guide identifies 宇都宮大学 / Utsunomiya University in Utsunomiya, Tochigi, as the real location used for Yoko Gakuen’s exterior and its assembly hall in Episodes 1 and 2. This is especially significant because the Episode-1 hall scene is where Headmistress Emiko tells the children the truth about the “mission” they were born to fulfill; TBS’s own filming report describes that hall sequence as a key scene that was shot from morning until night.

The real building is 峰ヶ丘講堂 / Minegaoka Auditorium on Utsunomiya University’s Mine Campus. The university says it was completed in 1924 as the auditorium of its predecessor, Utsunomiya Higher Agricultural and Forestry School, restored in 2008–2009, and registered as a national Tangible Cultural Property in 2017. It remains part of the university’s Historical Zone and is still used for university events, community lectures, exhibitions, concerts and filming.

Pilgrimage note: this is a working university campus and heritage facility, not a permanently open drama set. Follow campus notices and event/access rules, keep academic activity undisturbed, and do not treat interior access as guaranteed. The stored coordinate (36.55085, 139.91190) is a building-level heritage-map pin for Minegaoka Auditorium, not an actor mark, doorway mark or exact 2016 camera position.