Isesaki Station Area about 60 years ago and today

History of Isesaki Station Area

At Isesaki Station, where the JR Ryomo Line and the Tobu Isesaki Line meet, the two lines were raised onto viaducts in the 2010s, and the band of tracks that had divided the town north and south at ground level changed into a long, narrow roof set on pillars. All of the past aerial photographs are from the period when the tracks still ran at ground level. The differences from today's image show that rows of houses were packed south of the station and fields remained to the north, and that after the elevation wide cleared lots and parking lots opened up on both sides of the station.

Fields spreading north of the tracks

In the 1961-69 photograph, the difference between north and south with the tracks as the border catches the eye. South of the station, the roofs of old rows of houses are packed eave to eave, narrow roads are tangled, and several streets cut through diagonally. Yet on the north side, just one set of tracks away, rectangular fields line up from right beside the station, and buildings only cluster here and there. If you zoom in, many tracks are laid in parallel in the station yard, and the fields on the north side press right up to its edge. The shape of the town in a time when the station entrance opened only to the south shows directly on the ground.

If you widen your eye to the whole frame, a wide riverbed draws a whitish arc from the west to the south, and at the eastern edge another river flows from top to bottom, curving as it goes. The site of a large factory with long, narrow white roofs lined up lies in the middle of the north. The northeast corner is paddy fields divided into large lots, and in the northwest, settlements of fields and homestead woods are scattered. The downtown is weighted toward the southern half, and the northern half is still the color of farmland.

Tracks at ground level and the north of the station

In the 1974-78 photograph, many of the fields on the north side have been replaced by rows of houses. If you zoom in, several white round storage tanks line up beside the tracks on the north side of the station, and the roofs of houses have crowded up around them. Southwest of the station, dark green woods remain in a single mass, and toward the southeast a station yard with the tracks splitting into many lines extends long and narrow. This is the side where the Tobu Isesaki Line heads southeast. On the river to the west, the lines of the embankments can be seen clearly, and streams of water pass thinly through the riverbed. At the factory in the middle of the north, fine stripes that look like sawtooth roofs line up.

In the 1979-83 photograph, the color of farmland has almost disappeared from the middle of the frame around the station, and the paddies and fields have retreated to the outer edge. At the top edge to the north, an athletics track appears clearly, and east of the station a large building with a red roof appears. The river to the west is held between straight revetments the farther south it goes, and its flow has been regulated. The composition is almost the same in the 1984-86 photograph too; the round storage tanks that were beside the tracks on the north side of the station have disappeared, and a square vacant lot with nothing built on it remains there. The station yard is still at ground level, and the band of tracks crosses the town from east to west. Across the four eras, you notice that only the band of tracks does not change.

Two lines raised onto viaducts

According to the materials of Gunma Prefecture, the plan to elevate the tracks around Isesaki Station took shape when a council for the project was formed in fiscal 1992. The prefecture carried out the project, raising about 2.5 km of the JR Ryomo Line and about 2.2 km of the Tobu Isesaki Line onto viaducts and removing 20 level crossings. Construction on the Ryomo Line began in fiscal 2006, and when it was switched to the viaduct in fiscal 2010, the new station building of Isesaki Station came into use at the same time. Construction on the Tobu Isesaki Line began in fiscal 2009, and it was switched to the viaduct from fiscal 2013 to fiscal 2015. In fiscal 2016 the station plaza of Isesaki Station opened for use. Side roads totaling about 3.3 km were added on both sides of the viaduct, and the prefecture summarizes that congestion caused by waiting at level crossings was eliminated by up to about 450 m. Shin-Isesaki Station on the Tobu line was also rebuilt with a new station building within the same project.

As an effect of this project, the prefecture cites that the station, where users had to go around to the south exit because there had been no proper north exit, became easier to pass through with the development of the north exit. It is exactly that north side where fields pressed up to the tracks in the 1961-69 photograph. Alongside the elevation, the City of Isesaki has been carrying out land readjustment projects in the area adjoining the south side of the station from fiscal 1996 and in the area adjacent to the north side from fiscal 2001. As of 2026, both are still within their implementation periods. The southern area covers parts of the towns south of the station, such as Kuruwa-cho and Ote-machi. The northern area covers parts of Kita-machi and others, and its stated goals are to prepare roads and parks and the plaza at the station's north exit.

Wide cleared lots opened in front of the station

In the photograph as of 2026, a thin, bright line of viaduct runs east-west along the trace of the band of tracks that once crossed at ground level. If you zoom in, the long roofs of the platforms extend east-west above the station, and the ground directly beneath is used as parking lots and passages. According to the City of Isesaki, a free passage linking the north and south station plazas and parking lots were set up under the viaduct at the same time as the elevation. North of the station, several wide cleared lots and paved surfaces where buildings have disappeared have opened up, and large blank lots, different both from the old field lots and from the rows of houses of 1974-78, are gathered there. A wide road also passes south of the station, and a paved surface drawing an arc that looks like a plaza lies near the station.

If you move your eye to the outside of the town, many things have not changed. The arc of the river to the west and the curves of the river to the east overlap with the 1961-69 photograph, and the lots of paddy fields remain in the northeast corner. The woods southwest of the station are also in the same position, though the mass has become smaller. The factory site in the middle of the north keeps the outline of its land while changing the arrangement of its buildings.

At the station area of Isesaki, the four eras shown in the photographs all come before the elevation, and moreover fall in the period when there was no station entrance on the north side. That is why the density looks so different north and south of the band of tracks, and the cleared lots spreading on the north side in today's photograph can be read as the rebuilding of the side that had no entrance still continuing.