Chofu Station Area about 60 years ago and today

History of Chofu Station Area

The Keio Line, extending from Shinjuku, divides in two at Chofu, and one branch becomes the Sagamihara Line, which crosses the Tama River and heads south. In August 2012 the tracks before and after the station were moved underground, and on the surface where level crossings had lined up, passages, parks and buildings were laid out in stages. In the aerial photographs, more than the tracks themselves, it is how densely the land around the tracks is packed that clearly changes from era to era. The way fields are replaced little by little by roofs centered on the station, and large buildings gather around the station, is captured in six eras and today's photograph.

A post-town road and the first trains

In the Edo period this area was a post town on the Koshu Kaido. According to the city's local history museum, the five villages of Kokuryo, Shimofuda, Kamifuda, Shimoishihara and Kamiishihara took turns carrying out the duties of the post town and were called the five post towns of Fuda (Fuda Goshuku). The post town was a little over 3 km long, and the townscape continued long and narrow along the highway. There were few inns, and its main role is said to have been passing people and goods on to the next post town.

In April 1913, the Keio Electric Tramway ran trains between Sasazuka and Chofu. This was the beginning of the Keio Line. Later a line from Chofu to Tamagawara and a line to Fuchu were extended, and the station took the form of a split in two directions. Being connected to central Tokyo by train, this land drew attention as a pleasure resort and suburban residential area, and after the Great Kanto Earthquake more people moved in. Around the late 1920s and early 1930s, Keiokaku and the Nikkatsu film studio were built, and in 1931 the Koshu Kaido was paved.

Starting from the part that appears

In the 1945-50 photograph, most of the frame is a gray gap, outside the area covered by the photographs. Only a fan-shaped part from the upper right to the right appears. There, finely divided fields spread out, and two corners where small buildings line up at equal intervals can be seen. In the middle of the right side of the frame, a single road extends east-west, with rows of houses lining both sides in long, narrow strips. You cannot tell from this photograph what the area around the station looked like at the time.

By 1961-69 the gap is gone, and the whole frame can be seen. Rows of houses gather densely around the center, and the lots of fields grow larger farther out. In the upper left, a thick straight line cuts the frame diagonally, and at the bottom edge the wide riverbed of the Tama River shines white. Just north of the riverbed there is an oval stadium. Toward the bottom of the frame, due south of the center, there is a bright triangular lot with small white buildings lined up neatly. The farther a place is from the center, the sharper the boundary between fields and roofs.

The era when fields turned into roofs

Around the time this photograph was taken, the town was rapidly gaining people. When Chofu Town and Jindai Town merged in 1955 to create the City of Chofu, the population was a little over 45,000. According to the city, the population increased rapidly as danchi (housing complexes) began to be built, passing 100,000 in 1965. At the 1964 Tokyo Olympics the Koshu Kaido became the marathon route, and Tobitakyu in the city was chosen as the turnaround point. The rows of houses packed around the center in the 1961-69 photograph and the fields still remaining widely outside them are the scene in the middle of this growth.

In the 1974-78 photograph, an elevated road crosses the upper part of the frame in an arc and descends to a grade-separated interchange of overlapping loops in the upper left. It is the Chuo Expressway, which also appears on the maps in the city's urban planning materials. In the color frame, only the lower right looks purplish. In the upper left corner, bright ground with an oval track spreads out. The rows of houses around the center are packed even more densely, and the fields are pushed to the south and east of the frame.

In 1979-83 and 1984-86, large buildings increase little by little in the center, and the fields to the south and east are split into small lots that remain only here and there. The bright ground in the upper left corner appears in 1984-86 as a wide grassland edged by dark woods, and the oval of the stadium by the riverbed is in the same position. The flow of the Tama River changes the shape of its sandbars from era to era, and the white band of sand shifts right and left. In 1987-90, a thin bright band can be seen passing west-northwest near the center, with large buildings lining both sides. The tracks still run above ground, and the level crossings before and after the station remain for more than another 20 years until the tracks are put underground.

Tracks moved underground

The Keio Line continuous grade separation project, which removes the crossings of roads and railway all together, moved the tracks underground. In August 2012, about 2.8 km of the Keio Line from Shibasaki Station to Nishi-Chofu Station and about 0.9 km of the Sagamihara Line from Chofu Station to Keio-tamagawa Station were put underground, and 18 level crossings disappeared. Not only Chofu Station but also the neighboring Fuda Station and Kokuryo Station became underground stations.

On the long, narrow railway land left above ground, commercial facilities, parks, bicycle parking, green paths and local roads were laid out in stages. The plan drawing for the plaza in front of the station was decided in March 2021, and its development was finished at the end of fiscal 2025. It covers about 17,000 square meters, and the city also uses it as a place for events.

In today's photograph too, with tall buildings gathered in the center, the elevated road in the upper part draws the same arc as in 1974-78. In the upper left corner, where there was grassland edged by woods in 1984-86, the roof of a large stadium and a building with a large white roof have appeared, and the fields that stood out in the 1961-69 photograph hardly remain. Dense green woods gather only in the upper right corner, keeping almost the same outline since 1961-69. The closer a lot is to the station, the larger its buildings, and farther away the frame returns to rows of fine roofs. The riverbed at the bottom edge is still white and wide. Since this is lowland along the Tama River, the condition of the land on the side closer to the river can be checked on the hazard map published by the city.

The city lists smoother north-south traffic among the results of putting the tracks underground, along with the removal of level crossings. The official land prices (Chika Koji) also have a standard site at a residential area 207 m from the station (Fuda 4-chome); among the values up to the 2026 official land prices, the lowest is 453,000 yen per square meter in 2013 and the highest is 750,000 yen in 2026.