The Ginza Line Story

This year marks exactly 90 years since the Ginza Line subway was opened by Tokyo Underground Railway between Asakusa and Ueno in 1927. Mr. Fuji, what are your memories of the subway in Asakusa?

I attended Bancho Elementary School and Kojimachi Junior High School by commuting outside my district, and then went to Keio Shiki Senior High School. So, my entire commute was on the subway (Ginza Line). I believe the starting fare was about 7 yen when I was in first grade.

Around what time was that?

Around 1955. I think it was around my fourth or fifth year of elementary school when they started punching tickets at the ticket gates. I used to take the Ginza Line from Asakusa, transfer to the Chuo Line at Kanda, and go to Yotsuya, but later the Marunouchi Line (opened in 1954) was built, creating a route where I could transfer at Akasaka-mitsuke.

I was born in Ochiai, Shinjuku, and when I was a child, the only subways were the Ginza Line and the Marunouchi Line. When we went out to Ginza, we usually took the Marunouchi Line from Shinjuku.

When I entered Keio Senior High School and went from Hiyoshi to Ginza, the Hibiya Line had already been completed around the time of the Olympics (fully opened in 1964), so I used that. The Ginza Line wasn't a line I used constantly, but I often watched the trains right across the platform at Akasaka-mitsuke, or where they emerged outside at Shibuya.

Also, until about junior high school, I collected quite a few commemorative tickets, and I even have the commemorative ticket from 1968 for the renewal of 60 Ginza Line cars (laughs). For my generation, the one we rode most often was definitely the 2000 series.

1968 was around the time they replaced about 60 cars, including the 1000 series that had been active since the opening.

In the old days, the part where the automatic doors retracted wasn't rubber, so there were many instances where elementary school students got their hands pulled in and caught. I remember seeing kids crying because of that.

In the early cars, the hand straps were on stiff springs, and even the handle part at the top was made of plastic, so they would snap back with a bang. When I was in junior high, I used to play with them for fun (laughs).

That type had its pros and cons, and they were replaced with a general-purpose type during later renewals.

What is the name of that kind of hand strap?

It's called the Rico type.

In those days, the luggage racks were actual nets, weren't they?

Yes, exactly. They were proper, real net racks.

And then there were the familiar emergency lights that would turn on mid-journey. They were on cars up to the 2000 series. Until around when were they running?

Until July 1993. After that, they were unified into the 01 series.

With the orange band on stainless steel.

For the six years from 1989, when I entered Keio Futsubu School, until I finished high school, I rode just one stop from Omotesando to Shibuya every day. That was exactly the transition period from the orange conventional cars to the 01 series.

Both my father and grandfather were huge railway enthusiasts, and my late grandfather left behind some old items. The current Ginza Line was originally composed of lines from two different companies, Tokyo Underground Railway and Tokyo Rapid Railway, and this is a guide from around the time they started through-service.

Was that around 1939?

Were things like this placed next to the ticket gates, like the "Metro News" of a while ago?

It seems these were placed at the stations. For better or worse, as expected of the Ginza Line, there are many things that haven't changed between then and now.

I remember postcard-sized "one-word memos" with something written on them being placed at the station. You could learn various things by reading them every week.

On the Ginza Line, from Asakusa to Suehirocho, all the platforms face each other. That's probably because it was easy to just dig right under the road. You go down from the road and the entrance is right there. It's only when you get to Kanda that there's a platform in the middle for the first time.

Thinking about it now, it's a very shallow underground.

You go down the stairs and you're at the station immediately.

What is the Ginza Line like for the people of Asakusa?

People of my generation don't leave Asakusa much. When I first rode the subway, the main hall of Senso-ji Temple didn't even exist yet.

It had been burned down in the war.

There was no Kaminarimon Gate, no main hall, no five-story pagoda—Asakusa was a place where everything was missing. Eventually, around 1958 when I was in third grade, the main hall was built, and then the Kaminarimon Gate was built in 1960.

The parents of my classmate Mr. Toyoda, who owns a shoe store in Nakamise and whom you also know, said they used the Ginza Line as an air-raid shelter during the bombings.

I don't know if they were trying to extend the line or expand the station, but my grandfather used to say there must be a large underground space beyond Asakusa Station.

Does that mean they escaped into the depths of it?

Probably. There were even stories after the war about a GHQ jeep falling in (laughs).

There was a long-standing plan to extend the line to Minowa, wasn't there?

I heard that the subway is actually building a substation in the direction of Matsuchiyama (Honryuin) now and planning to extend the turnaround track. But I wonder why they don't think about extending the line even further.

I think Asakusa would be more interesting if they extended it and made an exit past Kototoi-dori. Recently, the number of passengers has become so huge that there's even talk of separating the platforms at Asakusa Station into exit-only and boarding-only.

Is that so?

When we were students, the Ginza Line would suddenly empty out at Ueno on the way back. From there to Asakusa, the train was completely empty. It's only recently that it's been full.

It was particularly bad right after the Olympics. Because color TVs became popular, the movie theater district went downhill, and people stopped coming.

A weekly magazine wrote "Declining Asakusa" in huge letters and published a two-page spread of a photo of the Rokku district without a soul in sight.

Until quite recently in Kanda, there was a shopping street that was a remnant of the Sudacho Subway Store. There were old clothing shops and such.

It seems some tenants were there until 2011.

I see. About 20 years ago, signs like "Sudacho Department Store" still remained at the entrance.

The area at Exit 1 in Asakusa was also called the Subway Department Store. Yasunari Kawabata's "The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa" uses the upper floors as a base.

Yes, exactly. This is it (photo).

These buildings were properly managed by the subway (Tokyo Underground Railway, Eidan). The Kaminarimon Dining Hall, Ueno Station Dining Hall, and Ueno Sudacho Store were all directly operated.

The building currently in Asakusa has been remodeled, but the scale is almost the same as it was then. Although the interior has basically been completely rebuilt.

When there was no Kaminarimon Gate, this Subway Building was truly a symbolic building of Asakusa.

The Subway Building didn't burn down in the war, did it?

It didn't burn. It was a very old building. I used to go to a dentist on the first floor. It was a rickety building.

It's often said that after the Twelve-Story Building (Ryunkaku), which had an elevator, collapsed in the Great Kanto Earthquake, it became a symbolic presence in Asakusa.

That's right. But then, in 1960, Konosuke Matsushita rebuilt the Kaminarimon Gate for the first time in about 100 years. Usually, the person who dedicates a lantern has their name written on it, but Mr. Matsushita wrote "Kaminarimon." If that had said "Matsushita," the current Kaminarimon wouldn't be what it is.

In Asakusa, when the Yamanote Line tried to pass through, the people of Asakusa strongly opposed it and kicked it out. Since there was nothing else there, maybe it was good that it was a subway, because it was new.

When did Tobu start crossing the bridge over the Sumida River?

That was after the Ginza Line opened, around 1931, wasn't it?

The Ginza Line is the senior.

That Tobu building is also old. People say they fled there during the war too.

Are you talking about the Matsuya building? Matsuya is also amazing. Looking at photos from that era, it really feels like a giant battleship is sitting by the river.

It's a major theme park. The rooftop is an amusement park, there's a theater in the middle, and there were wedding halls and photo studios.

At that time, Asakusa was indeed one of the top one or two busiest districts in Tokyo.

I bought a "Department Store Tour Ticket" at a stamp shop called Fukuo Stamp in Harajuku; they sold things other than stamps. It includes department stores along the Ginza Line, like Matsuzakaya.

The timing is a bit different from the one my grandfather had. I've heard that these existed before the entire line started through-service, and the range of department stores covered varied depending on the period.

Is this one from 1939?

I've heard they first went on sale in 1933.

Since the line later extended to Ginza, the Sudacho Store in Kanda was dropped. Maybe they figured it was fine since it was their own property (laughs)?

Normally, you can't get off midway on a subway ticket, but it seems you could with this specific ticket.

That's right. That's why there are punch marks at every stop. Until when did this "Department Store Tour" exist?

I wonder until when.

When it first opened, it was like an automatic gate where you put money in to pass through, right?

Yes. You just dropped the money in with a 'clink'.

That turnstile is in the Subway Museum in Kasai, isn't it? The New York City Subway used things like that until quite recently.

There was one in Asakusa, and the layout was exactly the same as it is now.

However, they stopped the flat-fare system before the war, and furthermore, those gates were removed during the war for scrap metal collection, so I've heard they were only seen for a very short period.

The underground passage that goes diagonally next to Asakusa is the oldest, right? There's a sauce yakisoba shop there.

That's right.

If you walk along, you can see remnants of the old stairs exposed next to the current stairs.

Those aren't remnants. There was probably a rock so large they couldn't move it. It's just left as it was.

Water still drips there even now, so it must have been the sea originally.

Are they still using the old enclosure for the entrance on the Asakusa side of Inaricho? There was a classic tiled one.

It's under construction now. I passed by just two or three days ago and it was closed off, so I was forced out the opposite side.

Old things are popular now, so they might be restoring it.

It seemed like they wanted to give it a retro feel. I'm not sure about just doing the surface, though.

Behind the driver's seat of the first train car displayed at the Subway Museum, there's a sign that says "No Spitting." I wonder until when those were written. Is the car at the Subway Museum an original?

It's the real thing, not a replica. However, it seems some small parts like plates have been restored.

They were yellowish at first, which is why the current retro-style 1000 series is yellow. The 2000 series we used to ride was actually closer to orange.

Records show that the color gradually became darker over time.

In the 1970s, there was quite a bit of variation in the paint, wasn't there?

There was.

Dark orange, yellow, and so on. Is there any talk of reviving the Marunouchi Line's 'Sun Wave' pattern?

They'll be replacing the cars starting in 2018, so it will be interesting to see what kind of trains come out then.

Did people start calling it the "Ginza Line" after the Marunouchi Line was built?

There's a record from 1953, just before the Marunouchi Line opened, stating it would be called the "Ginza Line."

Because when there's only one, you don't need a name.

What did people call it?

It was just "the subway." Or rather, "the train." Since we were kids, if we said, "I take the train to school," people would be like, "Wow, that's impressive." People used to call the National Railways "Shosen," right?

Indeed, looking at old documents, they all just say "Subway."

When you say subway, it means the Ginza Line. On the old Ginza Line, what was the mechanism that caused the interior lights to go out and the emergency lights to come on? Was it because of the gaps in the tracks?

It draws power from a third rail located below, but there are sections where it draws from the left and sections where it draws from the right. At the points where it switches between left and right, there are sections where it doesn't draw power from either side to avoid overlapping. So, when the train hits a section where it can't draw power, the lights go out.

So the sections where they went out were fixed.

Yes, that's right.

They always went out when leaving Asakusa.

The cars that went dark were up to the 2000 series.

Has the mechanism for power supply remained the same even now?

It hasn't changed, but the reason current interior lights don't go out is that the cars themselves have been improved through technological progress. I have strong memories of those lamps from when I was young, and when the cars were being retired, there was a parts sale where I lined up for hours to buy one.

I found it after rummaging around. I plan to install it once I have a proper mansion (laughs).

That's nice. Is this the one that was on the 2000 series?

To be honest, I think it might be from the Marunouchi Line of the same era. There are both frosted glass types and clear ones.

It seems these emergency lights are also on the retro-style 1000 series trains now, but I wonder how faithfully they've been reproduced.

Is "emergency light" the accurate name?

The terminology varies quite a bit, but many descriptions refer to them as emergency lights.

The interior of those retro cars feels a bit overdone.

I heard they even turn the lights off on purpose? To recreate the old days.

That's right. It's for the performance.

I wonder when air conditioning was introduced.

The early 01 series didn't have it. Eidan's initial policy for air conditioning was to cool the tunnels. On the Ginza Line, it started from 1990.

That's right. It was tunnel cooling.

It's hot when you get on the train.

Other lines were a few years earlier, but because the Ginza Line has a small tunnel cross-section, they couldn't install it until the technology for thin air conditioners to mount on the cars was established.

It's hot when you get on, but somehow, looking back now, that lukewarm breeze is a unique summer tradition of that era (laughs).

That's right. When you go above the subway, a lukewarm breeze comes blowing through.

Akio Jissoji, the Ultraman director who was a railway enthusiast, often talked about how the Marunouchi Line side of Akasaka-mitsuke was very sci-fi-like just before the line opened, because there were no tracks and it was just a cavern. That space must have been completed before the war.

I think that kind of thing served as a hint for Ultra Q or something similar. You know, the underground-themed ones.

That's true. Also, this is famous, but there is a phantom Shimbashi Station. They still open it up when there are events.

The Tokyo Underground Railway coming from Asakusa and the Tokyo Rapid Railway coming from Shibuya didn't get along, so even after they connected at Shimbashi, they didn't do through-service for a while, right?

Yes, that's right. That's why there were two Shimbashi Stations.

The phantom platform was, so to speak, a temporary terminal station for the Tokyo Rapid Railway line that connected Shibuya to Shimbashi. If they had cooperated and started through-service from the beginning, that platform wouldn't have been necessary.

The Tokyo Underground Railway was trying to go toward Shinagawa instead of Shibuya, wasn't it?

The Tokyo Rapid Railway seems to have had green and ivory cars; did those run even after the through-service started?

Those were the 100 series cars. The cars themselves continued to run even after through-service began, until they were replaced in 1968.

They ran in green and ivory colors until around 1965?

The colors were repainted.

I see. I would have liked to ride in those colors too.

Also, the old platforms still remain at Omotesando Station. Until the Hanzomon Line was built, passengers had to go above ground to transfer between the Ginza Line and the Chiyoda Line.

They built a platform on the Asakusa side of the old station to allow for cross-platform transfers. When you leave the Ginza Line's Omotesando Station, you can see the ruins of the old Omotesando Station.

It was originally named Jingumae Station, wasn't it? Then, because the Chiyoda Line's Omotesando Station was built, the Ginza Line changed its name as well (1972).

Was there also a period when it was called Aoyama-rokuchome?

In the very beginning, it was called that for about a year before it became Jingumae.

Surprisingly, there aren't many places where Tokyo subways have changed their station names. In that sense, this might be the only station that changed twice, from Aoyama-rokuchome to Jingumae and then to Omotesando.

Then there's Shibuya. Originally, the Ginza Line was planned to go beyond Shibuya to Futako-tamagawa via what was called the old Shin-Tamagawa Line.

When the Shin-Tamagawa Line was built, the Futako-tamagawa Station platforms were placed on the inside, but since the original purpose was to run the Ginza Line through and have it turn back at that station, they built it with that structure. They ended up swapping the inside and outside tracks over the last 20 years. I suppose they built it too far ahead of its time.

Shibuya Station is going to move toward Hikarie, isn't it? For me, the Ginza Line is the view of the elevated bridge coming out over the streets of Shibuya. Looking at it from there feels the most like the Ginza Line. That exposed feeling really hasn't changed for a long time.

That's true.

Even in movies from just after the end of the war, you can see the Ginza Line coming out on that bridge beyond the piles of rubble.

In Nikkatsu movies from the 1950s and 60s, the area next to the Shibuya depot was often used for scenes where punks would fight. I think it was the second film in the "Young Guy of Ginza" series.

Yuzo Kayama plays a cook in Ginza, but the place where he fights is next to the Shibuya depot (laughs).

It must have been a good filming location.

Yes. It was quite a seedy area, really full of places like short-stay hotels right next to it.

I don't have much memory of movies or TV shows where the inside of a Ginza Line car appears. "You Only Live Twice" uses Marunouchi Line cars. They take the Marunouchi Line to go to the Spectre base in Japan (laughs). I heard a story before that it was filmed on the Honancho branch line.

The Marunouchi Line opened as far as Nishi-ginza in 1957. At that time, Ginza Station and Nishi-ginza Station were still different stations.

When the Hibiya Line was fully opened in 1964, it became the current Ginza Station by connecting both stations. At that time, all the subways passed through Ginza. It makes me think, "As expected of Ginza."

Everyone heads toward Ginza. Since they are lines going to the city center, they were named Ginza, Marunouchi, and Hibiya. They go toward those places.

Gradually, clear place names ran out, and names like Tozai or Chiyoda became more vague (laughs). For a long time, the Toei lines were called by numbers like Line 1 and Line 6.

Public transportation is slow to adopt nicknames. I recall that in Osaka, they went up to about Line 4 before nicknames were attached.

Osaka has the Midosuji Line, which has existed since before the war. That one is quite old.

The Yotsubashi Line also opened just before the war, so their second line was earlier than Tokyo's.

The Ginza Line is now seen as having medium-sized cars, but when it was first built, they were by no means small.

The length of the cars is short, isn't it?

They are 16 meters per car. For Eidan (TRTA) lines from the Tozai Line onward, they are 20 meters. Large 20-meter cars have a significant advantage in that they can perform through-service with suburban private railways.

The Oedo Line is narrower, isn't it?

Yes. Although the length isn't much different from Ginza Line cars. While more and more lines were becoming capable of accommodating large 20-meter cars, there has been a partial swing back toward medium-sized cars in public transportation to save on construction costs.

Suburban trains running directly into the subway is a major characteristic of Japan, especially Tokyo.

Do other countries not have through-service? When I first saw the Odakyu Romancecar entering the Chiyoda Line, I felt a bit of a shock (laughs). The blue one.

As suburbanization progressed due to population growth in the Tokyo area, the Hibiya Line introduced cars from the planning stage based on the premise of mutual through-service with other companies' lines, and subsequent lines followed suit. There probably isn't another country with such extensive mutual through-service.

I see. The Hibiya Line was built with through-service in mind from the start. The Tobu side goes deep into Saitama and Tochigi.

So the policy switched to that after the Olympics?

Perhaps even before that. It was around the 1960s when the population of the Tokyo area was increasing by 500,000 every year. At that time, they were quite systematic about laying down railways, creating residential areas in the suburbs, and thinking about how to handle commuting, so I think they had foresight. However, the actual volume of transport far exceeded their assumptions.

Since the Ginza Line was built early, it was left out of that trend and became a precious existence.

It passed through Tokyo's first top-tier entertainment districts. The stretch between Ueno and Ginza is the Chuo-dori road that continues from the Tokaido. The area where the Ginza Line runs is what you'd call Onari-dori, right? Route 1 of the Tokyo Toden streetcars used to run above it.

Ginza and Asakusa of course, but the Manseibashi area was also a bustling district. It feels like Akihabara flourished later as a result.

That's why they went out of their way to build things like the statue of Commander Hirose there.

Exactly. Building something like that means that many people will come to see it.

Speaking of Keio and the Ginza Line, while there is no nearest station, it would still be Ginza.

Ginza, and maybe Shibuya. Also, Gaienmae has the Waseda-Keio rivalry at Jingu, and in the case of Asakusa, there's the regatta.

That's right.

Gaienmae was also called Aoyama-something-chome back in the day, wasn't it?

Aoyama-yonchome.

It was a sequence like the Tanimachi-something-chome in Osaka. Only Aoyama-itchome remains.

In a pamphlet produced by the Tokyo Rapid Railway in 1939, it already clearly shows the baseball stadium. This was before the Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium existed.

Gratefully, when I see passengers who used to get off at Ueno now coming all the way through and many of them boarding from Asakusa, I think things have changed a lot and improved. The Ginza Line is truly a barometer of the city.

When going from my area to Asakusa for fun, getting on an empty train at the Shibuya starting station and being guaranteed a seat all the way to Asakusa makes it feel quite like a leisure trip.

It passes through neighborhoods with many different characters, so you never get tired of watching the passengers.

Railways that maintain a sense of Tokyo locality in a good way are becoming fewer and fewer. My house is along the Inokashira Line, and the Inokashira Line is also relatively local. I want railways that run short distances within Tokyo to be cherished.

Also, station names like Inaricho and Tawaramachi preserve town names that no longer exist. Like Ueno-hirokoji. Hirokoji is a station name unique to the early Showa era. It's nice that those somewhat atmospheric station names remain.

It's very interesting how the brand aimed for at the time of opening continues to live on unchanged. Today, Tokyo Metro is just under 200 kilometers in total route length, and the first 15 kilometers of that is the Ginza Line.

While Tokyo's subways expanded rapidly, the Ginza Line reached its current fleet size of 250 cars by around 1965, so it matured at a very early stage and has remained unchanged since then.

I believe that, more than anything, being a line that does not have mutual through-service and is completed within Tokyo's 23 wards is the reason why the Ginza Line will remain unchanged in the future.