Ah, Nakanoshima | Naoyuki Agawa (Dean of the Faculty of Policy Management)

2008.11.06

I went to Osaka on October 19 to attend a symposium on the United States. The symposium was from the afternoon of the 20th. I could have traveled the next morning, but there was a reason I went a day early. The Keihan Railway Nakanoshima Line opened on October 19.

As anyone from the Kansai region knows well, the Keihan Railway is a private railway connecting Kyoto and Osaka. While the Hankyu Railway's limited express trains connect Kawaramachi Station to Umeda Station and JR West's Special Rapid Service connects Kyoto Station to Osaka Station, the Keihan Limited Express runs steadfastly along the winding Keihan Main Line from Demachiyanagi Station to Yodoyabashi Station. The company was founded in 1910, and although the Keihan Limited Express now makes a jumble of stops at Sanjo, Gion-Shijo, Shichijo, Tambabashi, Chushojima, Kuzuha, Hirakata, and Kyobashi (the Rapid Limited Express from Yodoyabashi to Demachiyanagi on weekday evenings skips Hirakata and Kuzuha), it used to run nonstop from Shichijo all the way to Kyobashi. About 20 years ago, unaware of this, I casually hopped on a Yodoyabashi-bound limited express at Shichijo Station, only to find it didn't stop until Osaka. I had no choice but to walk from the final stop, Yodoyabashi, to Umeda, have a meal, and then return to Kyoto on the Hankyu Limited Express, which at the time also only stopped at Jūsō (can you read it?). And all I wanted was to ride the coveted Keihan Limited Express "TV Car" for a little while.

I had heard for some time that the Keihan Railway was constructing a new line. Branching off from the Keihan Main Line at Kyobashi and dipping underground, the new line proceeds from east to west beneath Nakanoshima, an area sandwiched between the Dojima and Tosahori rivers, stopping at Temmabashi, Naniwabashi, Oebashi, and Watanabe-bashi before reaching its terminus at Nakanoshima. And this new Nakanoshima Line was set to open the day before my symposium. It was the perfect opportunity. I decided to go and ride it.

And so, on October 19, I arrived in Kyoto in the early afternoon on the "Nozomi" Shinkansen (luckily, an N700 series), transferred to the municipal subway, and went to Karasuma-Shijo. After meeting my son, who is a student at Doshisha University, in front of the Daimaru department store for a meal, I walked to Keihan Sanjo Station. As luck would have it, I immediately secured a seat on the lower level of a double-decker car on an 8000 series limited express train that pulled into the station, and headed for Kyobashi, feeling as if I were skimming the platforms of the stations we passed. Many place names in Kansai have a certain elegance. The names of the stations we passed and stopped at—Tofukuji, Toba-kaido, Fushimi-Inari, Fukakusa, Sumizome, Fushimi-Momoyama, Chushojima, Yodo—felt like a review of Japanese history.

After leaving Hirakata, the limited express picks up speed and runs for quite a long time without stopping anywhere until Kyobashi. Panasonic's Kadoma and Sanyo Electric's Moriguchi flash by in an instant. Upon entering Osaka City, the lineside is filled with advertisements for condominiums and apartments for rent. By the way, what is a "pansion" for sale? Osaka has some strange things, doesn't it?

I got off the Yodoyabashi-bound limited express at Kyobashi and finally transferred to a train on the Nakanoshima Line. I was surprised when I boarded the lead car of the local train that soon arrived. Despite it being a Sunday afternoon, it was packed with people. It seemed they were all railfans, eager to achieve the record of having ridden from Kyobashi to Nakanoshima on opening day, and wanting to witness with their own eyes the moment the train entered the Nakanoshima Line from the front car. A railfan mom with a child in a stroller, a railfan dad clutching a bag of diapers and baby bottles, a quite elderly railfan grandpa with a backpack and a hat, a scurrying railfan boy—all of them, as if by arrangement, held cameras, peered into the driver's cab with an extraordinary intensity. They waited with bated breath for the doors to close and the train to depart. Above their heads, on the wall behind the driver's seat, was an amulet from Naritasan Shinshoji Temple.

Soon the doors closed, a buzzer from the conductor's compartment signaled "all clear for departure," and as the driver pushed the controller, the train slowly began to move. It proceeded over rails that looked brand new even to a layman's eye, gradually descending underground. The clicking of camera shutters filled the air around me. At Kyobashi, the Keihan Main Line has two inbound and two outbound tracks, and by the time it reaches the underground Temmabashi station, one inbound and one outbound track from each line cross over, so that the Nakanoshima Line's tracks and the Keihan Main Line's tracks are separated onto two parallel platforms. After leaving here, they split left and right; the main line continues to Yodoyabashi on the south side of the Tosahori River, while the new line crosses to the north side of the same river and enters Nakanoshima. I wonder if this explanation makes sense. For railfans, this is the stuff dreams are made of. As the train curved to the right after leaving Temmabashi Station, the railfan grandpa behind me murmured to the middle-aged railfan son next to him in a voice thick with emotion, "Ah, a curve."

The first stop after the train entered Nakanoshima is Naniwabashi. As the brightly lit station came into view and the train glided to the platform, I saw that, incredibly, there was another large crowd of Keihan Railway fans here, all facing our train and snapping pictures furiously. It was the same at the next stop, Oebashi, the one after that, Watanabe-bashi, and the terminus, Nakanoshima. Even for an opening day, it was already nearly 4 p.m. Countless trains must have entered the new line since the first one this morning, so what was this strange elation? I'm not that much of an ardent railfan myself, but witnessing the depth of love that Osaka's railfans showed for the Keihan Railway, I was unwittingly moved to the verge of tears.

The railfans who got off the train at the final stop were now desperately trying to photograph the front of the lead car from the end of the platform. Finding their behavior more interesting than the train itself, I took a few pictures with my cell phone camera. After looking at the new 3000 series train that had pulled into the opposite platform, I thought, "Well, that's that," and headed up the escalator, walking through the crowded station concourse toward the ticket gates. Just then, I passed a middle-aged man running down toward the platform like a scared rabbit. Looking closely, I realized it was my SFC colleague, Shinichi Ueyama. I called out, "Ueyama-san," and he replied with a startled "Ah!" but didn't stop. I changed direction and ran alongside him, asking what was going on. He explained that he had a meeting in Funaba. It would have been quicker to take a taxi straight there, but since it was opening day, he decided to go by Keihan. He had walked from Hanshin Fukushima Station to Nakanoshima Station and was now planning to get off at the second stop, Oebashi, to catch a taxi to the venue. He was running late, he said, panting as he jumped onto the train and was gone. If he's that busy, he didn't have to go out of his way to ride it.

By the way, the area around Nakanoshima is also a place associated with Yukichi Fukuzawa. He was born in the Osaka Kurayashiki (warehouse-residence) of the Nakatsu-Okudaira domain, where his father worked, near the north end of the Tamae-bashi bridge over the Dojima River, on the opposite bank from Nakanoshima. After returning to Nakatsu for his boyhood, Yukichi Fukuzawa came back to Osaka to study at Ogata Koan's Tekijuku, which was located very near Keihan Yodoyabashi Station, south of the Tosahori River. In this district, the young Yukichi Fukuzawa studied hard and played hard. He recounts in his autobiography that he also got into a fair bit of mischief. Therefore, for Osaka University, which counts Tekijuku as one of its origins, Yukichi Fukuzawa is considered a disciple of Ogata-sensei. Yukichi Fukuzawa's name is highly respected in the Nakanoshima area as well, and he was even the model for some of the Nakanoshima Line opening promotional posters plastered throughout the station. The poster read, "Let's go to the 'shima.' The Keihan Railway Nakanoshima Line opens October 19!" and featured Shofukutei Nikaku as Yukichi Fukuzawa, murmuring, "If this had been around back then, commuting to Tekijuku would have been easier. - Yukichi Fukuzawa." Alongside Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Godai Tomoatsu, Yukichi Fukuzawa is doing well in Osaka. The fact that there's no mention of Keio University is admirable. Fukuzawa is great even without Keio. We should strive to be the same.

Incidentally, the symposium held the next day, titled "America: The Changing and the Unchanging," was sponsored by the Suntory Foundation for the Arts and co-hosted by Osaka University and Keio University. It was a great success with many attendees. The venue was the Keizo Saji Memorial Hall within the Osaka University Nakanoshima Center, which overlooks the Dojima River between Nakanoshima and Watanabe-bashi stations. According to Osaka University President Washida, who participated in the symposium, this entire area was once home to the university's School of Medicine. Tekijuku eventually developed into the Osaka University School of Medicine, a new Keihan Railway line now runs underground on the former site, and Nakanoshima has entered a new era. Across the river from the Osaka University Nakanoshima Center is the recently opened Keio Osaka Riverside Campus, which was clearly visible from the waiting room of Saji Hall. The monument commemorating the birthplace of Yukichi Fukuzawa is said to be very close by.

I wonder what the Osaka version of Yukichi Fukuzawa, who would have wanted to commute to Tekijuku on the Nakanoshima Line, would think of Keio University and its students today, as it celebrates its 150th anniversary.

Postscript

Ride the Keihan, you're an Okeihan

Get off the Keihan, it's O-Kei-Han

(Date Published: 2008/11/06)