Anan (Lower Naka River) about 60 years ago and today

History of Anan (Lower Naka River)

Low flat ground between two rivers spreads northeast of Anan Station. The wide Naka River crosses the top of the frame, another river flows just south of it, meandering from the lower left to the right, and the two streams head for the sea beyond the right edge of the frame. The station is in the lower left corner, and the center of the frame lies in the rice paddies some way northeast of it. None of the five elevation points reaches 2 m, and the center is only 0.8 m. It is a river delta close to the sea, and the photographs record the order in which roads, houses and factories came into that land of water and paddies.

Between two rivers

The City of Anan was born on May 1, 1958, when Tomioka Town and Tachibana Town merged and took city status. The city's public newsletter recalls that the city at the time made attracting factories its first pillar in order to rebuild its finances. According to the same article, the city enacted an ordinance to encourage the establishment of factories, attracted companies one after another from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s, and even drew up a plan to place a large coastal industrial zone along the sea. The city's overview also explains that, in addition to the gifts of the Naka River and the Kii Channel, the manufacturing industries lining the waterfront have supported employment in this city.

At the top edge of the frame, the rows of houses along the north bank of the Naka River belong to the side of the former Nakagawa Town, which was incorporated into the City of Anan on March 20, 2006. The north and south banks, separated by just one river, remained divided into a different city and town even after the City of Anan was born, until 2006. On the south bank side, the old town of Tomioka clustered around the station, and the delta to its northeast long remained rice paddies. The city's overview describes this area as an alluvial plain formed by the Naka River system. It is flat land spreading over sediment carried by the river, and the difference among the five elevation points is only about 1 m. About the only place that could be called high ground is the wooded hill in the lower right corner; everywhere else, paddies at almost the same height as the water surface continue.

The era showing sandbars and boats

The water of the Naka River takes up a good part of the upper half of the frame in the 1961-69 photograph. Many white sandbars float in the stream, and thin bands of sand continue along the banks. In the upper left corner, only one narrow bridge can be seen spanning the river north-south, and from there a single line runs down south toward the station. On the north bank, rows of houses form a band along the river, and on the south bank a straight line runs from left to right, sharply dividing the paddies from the riverbed.

In the middle of the frame, the other river draws an arc from the lower left out to the right, and toward the right on its south bank, rows of houses extend in a long, narrow line along the river. Many small boats line the riverside, suggesting that the river and daily life were close. A single diagonal road runs through the paddies in the center, and another straight east-west road crosses south of it. Houses only stand sparsely along such narrow roads.

The land in the upper right between the two rivers is also, in this era, nothing more than farmland with houses dotted between the paddy lots. In the lower left, roofs are packed around the station, and one wide site enclosed in a square by thin lines can be seen. In the lower right corner, a hill covered with dark woods rises from the flat ground.

In the 1974-78 photograph, part of the water surface shines white, and the outline of the rivers is hard to read in places. Even so, the changes on land are clear. The paddies around the center have become yellow strips divided finely, and just south of them, toward the bottom of the frame, a thin waterway threads through the paddies while bending widely. In the lower left, a sports ground with an oval running track has appeared beside the site that was enclosed in a square.

The land in the upper right between the rivers appears in this era as a wide dark green surface, and the paddy lots that could be read in 1961-69 are unclear. The rows of houses on the south bank continuing toward the right of the frame have grown denser in the same position as in the previous era, and rows of boats still remain along the riverside. In a corner just north of the center, hugging the south bank of the river, buildings with white roofs have increased in number, and houses have begun to line the road extending south from there. From this era it can be read that the hamlets that followed the riverbank had begun to spread toward the paddies.

Factories downstream and a new bridge

In today's photograph, the land in the upper right between the two rivers has changed most. Large buildings with white and blue roofs line up like a grid, with wide parking lots filling the space between them. This area is where Nichia Corporation has its Tatsumi Plant, which makes LEDs and phosphors. In the photograph, the land of paddies and houses has been replaced by one continuous factory site. A wide water surface remains south of the factory, and on the south bank beyond it, a white embankment line now edges the rows of houses in an arc.

Across the Naka River, in the middle of the upper half of the frame, there is a bridge that was not there in the black-and-white era, linking the former Nakagawa Town on the north bank with the south bank. The road across the bridge runs north-south just west of the center, and large flat-roofed buildings have come to line it. In paddies that had only a few narrow roads in 1961-69, a broad road for cars has come through. The narrow bridge in the upper left corner remains in the same position as in the black-and-white era, and with the new bridge added to its east, there are now two routes across the Naka River within the frame alone. The road running south from the new bridge also crosses the other river in succession north of the center.

Even so, in the lower part of the frame south of the center, rice paddies remain together. The lots are larger and more regular than the strips of 1974-78, and traces of the bending waterway can also be followed as a thin line. The wooded hill in the lower right keeps almost the same outline as in the black-and-white era, but a facility with white roofs stands at its foot, and bare soil shows on part of the slope. Around the station in the lower left, roofs have increased, and lots with paddies can hardly be seen. Factories, roads and paddies lined up on the delta: that is how it looks today.

It is a delta at about 1 m above sea level, and to know the assumed flooding and storm surge, looking up the address on the local government's hazard map is reliable. In Nanami-cho, about 830 m from the location, there is a standard residential site for official land prices (Chika Koji); up to the 2026 publication, the highest was 62,900 yen per square meter in 1999 and 2000, and the lowest was 32,300 yen in 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026.