Nearest Station to Keio University Hospital

2018/04/04

Image: Nameless Bridge (Obancho Overpass). Building 2 of Shinanomachi Campus is on the right, and Building 3 (South Wing) is on the left.

Keio University Hospital (hereinafter referred to as Keio Hospital) is located in front of Shinanomachi Station on the JR Chuo and Sobu (Local) Lines. While this is naturally the primary access route, a new nearest station was established in the 21st century. This is Kokuritsu-Kyogijo Station, which opened in 2002 with the launch of the Toei Oedo Line. However, this nearest station is not very well known.

After exiting the ticket gate at Kokuritsu-Kyogijo Station and turning left, you will reach ground-level exit A1 after taking a series of long escalators. It is so close that it is right behind the hospital. There is a paid parking lot and an entrance to Route 4 of the Metropolitan Expressway. Passing between them, there is a pedestrian-only bridge crossing the JR quadruple tracks, and crossing it leads to the road between Hospital Buildings 2 and 3. The travel time listed on the hospital website is approximately five minutes on foot.

Inside this paid parking lot, there is a building with a mysterious atmosphere: the champon restaurant "Suimeitei." It is only open on weekdays from 11:00 to 14:00. It became famous after being featured on the popular NHK program "Buratamori," but the first floor was originally built in the early Showa era as a rest area for the Meiji Jingu Gaien. After the war, it was founded as "Suimeitei" in 1962. It was a bustling eatery for Keio Hospital faculty and staff, and there is an anecdote that the Japanese national swimming team ate there during the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

The pedestrian-only bridge crossing the JR tracks also has a strange structure. On the Gaien side, more than half of it is cut off and narrowed by the girders of the Metropolitan Expressway, making it impassable for cars. It is immediately apparent that it is quite an old bridge, but what on earth was it built for? Let's delve into its history.

During the First Sino-Japanese War in the Meiji era, the Army built the Aoyama Parade Ground in what is now the Gaien area for the purpose of training troops from eastern Japan. The Kobu Railway, the predecessor of the Chuo Line, was requested by the Army to construct its urban route from Shinjuku further south to handle transportation to the parade ground, and a military siding was also built from Sendagaya. On the site where Keio Hospital now stands, army barracks and warehouses for weapons, shells, and ammunition were placed. Three bridges were built across the tracks to transport soldiers and supplies from here, and the "Obancho Overpass" is the only one that remains today.

After the death of Emperor Meiji, the parade ground became the site of the funeral pavilion (Sojoden), and later, Meiji Jingu Shrine was built to enshrine Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken. The former site of the barracks and ammunition depot was sold to Keio University, where the School of Medicine and the university hospital were constructed.

The opening of the Oedo Line also brought good news to the faculty and staff of Keio University. Traveling between Mita and Shinanomachi used to take nearly an hour, involving transfers at Yoyogi or Akihabara, or taking a bus that would get stuck in traffic. However, Akabanebashi Station on the Oedo Line opened on the north side of the Mita Campus, connecting it to Kokuritsu-Kyogijo Station in just nine minutes.

(Editorial Department)