When Tamachi Station Had a Ground-Level Ticket Gate

2021/05/31

Image: 1963 (Showa 38)

(Initially, the Shibaura Exit gate was connected via a footbridge, but there was no public walkway connecting the east and west sides. It was in February 1971 that the ticket gates were moved to the second floor and integrated, and the public walkway was created. In October 1994, a deck spanning Route 15 on the Mita side was built, significantly changing the flow of people. In February 2003, the width of the east-west public walkway was expanded to its current state.)

When exiting the west exit of Tamachi Station in 1957, the first thing that caught your eye was Tokyo Tower under construction. Looking at it out of the corner of my eye, I would walk through the shopping district to attend classes at the modern, newly completed Chutobu Junior High School building. Tokyo Tower, which used scrap metal from tanks used in the Korean War due to Japan's steel shortage, was like a barometer of high economic growth; I watched it excitedly from the top of the school building as it grew taller day by day.

While former President Seike spoke of the Fukuzawa spirit of "learning while teaching, teaching while learning," he noted, "At Chutobu Junior High School, students call teachers by the suffix '-san,' and there are no lecture platforms. The Keio University tradition of students and teachers learning at the same level is well-preserved" (Weekly Diamond, 2016). Chutobu Junior High School, which has no particular school rules, had flat human relationships with no distinction between men and women, and when I reached my 40s, the role of Alumni Association President came to me. My first job was attending the alumni association for the Keio University Commerce and Industry School, the predecessor of Chutobu Junior High School. In the year that school closed its history, the first and second-year students at the time became the second and third-year students of the fledgling Chutobu Junior High School. With Yasaburo Ikeda-san as the homeroom teacher and Yasushi Akutagawa-san for music, this was the origin of Chutobu Junior High School's innovative school culture. Additionally, students from the Mita Shopping District also attended the Commerce and Industry School.

The other day, when I asked Mr. Kino of "Matsuya" near the entrance of Nakadori about those days, he told me that there was a place like a fish market called "Zakoba" at the station's west exit. Since the Shibaura side was right on Tokyo Bay, the fish caught there were carried under the train tracks to the landing site on the west exit side to be sold, confirming my hazy memories. During Mr. Kino's childhood, the area from "Zakoba" to the hills of Mita and the entire Tsunamachi area was their playground. There was an archery range at Tsunamachi Field, and since there was no women's changing room when I was a member, I borrowed a corner of the residence of President Kohei Takamura's driver to change into my hakama every day. Let me also mention a small shrine with a strangely captivating presence located just off Keio Nakadori Shopping Street. It is the "Chanoki Inari Shrine," which enshrines the deity of fire prevention. Thanks to the careful protection of the shopping street community, the entire area, including Keio University, was spared from burning during the Great Tokyo Air Raid. In 2019, this gracious Inari deity was enshrined together with the Ganryu Inari Shrine on Nakadori, and continues to watch over the Tamachi area as a "guardian deity" to this day. After a long time, I offered a prayer, expressing my gratitude for the time of the air raids and praying for the further development of my alma mater.

(Kazuko Yoshioka, 1966 Mita-kai Chairperson)