Heiwajima / Oi Pier (Ryutsu Center) about 60 years ago and today

History of Heiwajima / Oi Pier (Ryutsu Center)

The area from Heiwajima to Oi Pier is land where, if you advance through the eras of aerial photographs in order from the oldest, the process of sea turning into land appears in sequence just as it happened. Eight past eras remain, from c. 1936-42 to FY2007. However, for the oldest, c. 1936-42, there is no photograph at all directly over the location, and it is from 1945-50 that the ground underfoot can be confirmed as water. Seawalls and bare ground appear in 1961-69, and by 1974-78 a large building sits directly on the location. In descriptions of reclaimed land, the scene of becoming land often falls between the last past era and the latest photograph. Here the order from water to town fits entirely within the eight eras.

Because the port of Tokyo opened at the mouth of the Sumida River, it lacked both deep quays where large ships could berth and wide flat land for handling cargo. Filling in the shallow sea offshore near central Tokyo would provide both at once. This area is land born from that idea, and the elevation at the location is 3.8 m at the center, 4.2 m to the north, 4.1 m to the south and 7.6 m to the west. There is no value for the east. The cross-section graph breaks off to the east because that direction is the water surface of a canal, and the source elevation data has not been made for it. The sequence with almost no relief from north to south and only the west one step higher shows that the location is placed on land developed flat. The nearest station is Ryutsu Center Station on the Tokyo Monorail Haneda Line, and the station's name, which means distribution center, expresses directly the role given to this land.

The offshore area the photographs do not reach

In the c. 1936-42 photograph, the area that has an image is itself narrow. Only a band toward the left of the frame appears; its width is narrowest at about 20% of the height from the top and reaches about 40% of the frame near the bottom edge. The rest is pale gray, the area the photography did not reach. There is no photograph at all directly over the location, and nothing can be said about the ground underfoot from this era. In the band you can see a city area pressed to the left edge and the dark water surface spreading east of it. Quays and jetties lie above the city area, with fine rows of buildings inside them, and the straight lines of roads and a railway run vertically. Toward the lower left there is a square corner enclosed by seawalls, with a group of buildings that look like factories on it. South of it a single white round structure is placed. Along the very top edge and the bottom edge there are bands spliced from other shoots, with handwritten numbers and white lettering remaining, so the history of the material as a record is visible just as it is.

In the 1945-50 photograph, the gray surface shifts to the right side of the frame. From the top edge down to about 70% of the height, about 30% of the width is gray, and the left edge of the gray shifts further left the lower it goes. There is no gray in the bottom quarter. The monochrome frame is grainy, but it is clear that most of the area shown is dark water surface. The left edge is a city area of a dense grid, and above it there is a large bright reclaimed area separated by a river or an inlet. Toward the left, long, narrow islets and small structures line up vertically, and a bright, irregular shape that looks like a sandbar floats east of them. In the lower left there is a peninsula-shaped corner with buildings on it, and the area to its south is a city area of a grid. At the bottom edge too, one long, narrow bright island appears. Directly at the location and around it, there is not a single artificial straight line.

Bare ground enclosed by seawalls

In the 1961-69 photograph, the left half of the frame turns into different land. A straight seawall line is drawn in the water surface, and the flat bare ground inside it continues south as a diagonal band. The surface has patches of light and dark, showing that the piled-up soil has not yet been leveled. In the upper left corner a racecourse appears, drawing an oval course in two rings. The facility has been placed on top of the bright reclaimed area that was at this position in the 1945-50 photograph, and going back and forth between the two eras lets you read the order in which the land use was decided. In the lower left there are a group of buildings that look like factories and two white round storage tanks. The composite image is bright only on the right side, and the seam between photographs taken separately can be seen. The location sits around the border between the eastern edge of the reclaimed land and the water surface outside it.

An island filled with warehouses

The 1974-78 photograph has color, and the sequence of the development can be read at a glance. The racecourse with a green interior lies in the upper left, the large roofs of long, narrow warehouses are lined up in the center left, and a large white box-shaped building stands south of them. The location is right on top of this building, a place that was the water's edge in the previous era. The frame from the center to the right is an expanse of ocher bare ground, with only lot lines and wide roads drawn, and leftover green puddles that were not filled in. In the upper right a corner can be seen where many thin straight lines are bundled together. It is a yard for lining up freight trains; Tokyo Freight Terminal Station opened in 1973, and this bundle corresponds to its group of tracks. A green canal crosses diagonally below the center.

The 1979-83 photograph has faded tones overall, and the skeleton is almost the same as in the previous era. The change is in the color of the bare ground: over a wide area of the right half, grass has grown and turned it from brown to dark brown, and divided green spaces and a square flat area that looks like a sports ground appear. In the center left the row of warehouses extends further, and the canal water is muddied ocher. The contrast between these two eras shows well that land created by filling is not all used right away, and that there is a period when it is left as vacant land overgrown with grass.

Reclaimed land where a market came

The 1984-86 photograph falls in the season of withered grass, and the right half is uniformly brown. The bundle of tracks in the upper right has increased further, and south of it four to five large white roofs line up. In the center left, long buildings with gray roofs are lined up, and the location is on the group of large flat roofs south of them. The canal is a deep navy blue, and in the middle right there is a green puddle left over from the previous era.

In the 1987-90 photograph, a group of large buildings with white sawtooth roofs appears in the middle right. It is Ota Market, which opened in 1989, and the facilities of the wholesale market appear as a chain of wide roofs. Green spaces and ponds are placed around it, and a row of large gray roofs has also been added beside the bundle of tracks in the upper right. In the lower right of the center a white elevated road runs diagonally, and several bridges cross the canal. If you compare it with the bare ground of 1974-78, you can see that the vacant land filled up in about 20 years. A large building with a gray flat roof stands directly at the location, the building from the previous era remaining as it was.

Even if you switch to the latest photograph, the skeleton of this land has not moved. The position of the canal, the oval of the racecourse, the bundle of tracks, the large roofs of the market and the warehouses in the center left are all in the same places as in 1987-90. The change is in the roofs: the warehouse roofs have changed to white and bluish colors, and blue surfaces that look like solar power equipment sit on the large flat roofs. In Tennozu to the north, the warehouse district was rearranged into blocks of offices and housing, but this area has kept its role as land for logistics and a market up to today. Land whose lots and seawalls were decided first to suit its use is hard to change in outline once buildings sit on it.

There is no residential point for official land prices (Chika Koji) inside the reclaimed land, and the nearest reference point is in Omori-kita, Ota Ward, about 1.3 km to the southwest. The price per square meter is 1,240,000 yen in 1991, when the record begins. The bottom up to the 2026 publication is 381,000 yen in 2012 and 2013, below one third of 1991. In the 2026 official land prices it is 594,000 yen, 1.6 times 2012 and 2013, and still only just over 40% of the 1991 value. The reference point is a residential area on the mainland side across the canal, not the price of the reclaimed land itself. Ota Ward's hazard map shows the extent of assumed disasters divided by zone.