Kochi Station Area about 60 years ago and today

History of Kochi Station Area

Kochi Station was built at the northern edge of the castle town, with its front facing south. In the aerial photographs the band of tracks crossing the center of the frame from east to west shows its position, and from there a single main street extends straight south, crossing two rivers as it runs through the old city area. In the two old eras this band appears thick and dark, looking like a wall separating the northern and southern city areas. If you look for the same place in today's photograph, only a single thin elevated line passes through, and the width where the band was has been replaced by buildings and roads. Raising the tracks onto an elevated structure and building two station plazas have redrawn the center of this frame on a large scale.

A station placed at the edge of town

The city area of Kochi spread as a castle town centered on Mount Otakasaka, where Kochi Castle stands, held between the Enokuchi River to the north and the Kagami River to the south. A hill covered with trees sits at the left edge of the frame, a little below the middle, and that is the castle's mountain. At the bottom edge of the frame, south of the Kagami River, a wooded hill also appears, but that is a different mountain from the castle's. The thin river flowing east to west across the center is the Enokuchi River, the wide river below is the Kagami River, and the other one meandering at the top is the Kuma River. On the frame it is about 1.3 km from the castle's mountain to the station, and the Enokuchi River crosses the space between. The center of the castle town fits south of the river, and the layout of the photograph also shows that the station was placed outside it.

The railway came in 1924, when the section between Kusaka Station and Kochi Station opened and the first Kochi Station was built. According to a Kochi Prefecture project record, the station was built at the edge of town about 700 m north of Harimaya Bridge, with its front facing the central city area to the south. Because the station was placed north of the Enokuchi River, the tracks ended up laid east to west outside the castle town. In the air raid of July 1945 most of the buildings in the center burned, and in December of the following year the Nankai Earthquake struck the city area. The reconstruction land readjustment project that followed renewed the old city area completely, and urbanization also progressed around the station. In 1970 the station building was rebuilt as the second-generation one.

The north and south separated by a dark band

In the black-and-white 1961-69 photograph, the station grounds run east to west across the center of the frame as a wide, darkish band. Inside the band, long, narrow platforms and lines of track run in parallel, and the band narrows toward its eastern and western ends. The tracks extending east change direction to the north just before the fields and run off to the top of the frame as if tracing the edge of the city area. This curve follows a route close to the elevated line in today's photograph, and the outline of the line's path has not changed over more than half a century. From the southern edge of the band a straight main street extends due south, crossing the Enokuchi River and the Kagami River by bridges to reach the bottom edge of the frame. The south side of the band is a city area densely packed with small roofs, with white squares that look like vacant lots dotted about, apparently school playgrounds. On the other hand, the area at the upper right is fields with regular lots, and the boundary with the city area can be seen clearly. In the middle of the top edge of the frame, north of the Kuma River, there is a group of large buildings with long, narrow roofs lined up in parallel, and a site that appears to be a factory is photographed as a single mass.

In the 1974-78 photograph the composition hardly moves either. The band of the station keeps the same width as a bundle of brown tracks, separating the northern and southern city areas. The Enokuchi River shows a dark green water surface, and white sandbars peek out in the Kagami River. The fields at the upper right still keep large lots, but housing has begun to eat into their western edge. The factory group north of the Kuma River does not change the arrangement of its roofs, and the castle's mountain at the left edge floats as a mass of deep green. In the lower left corner an oval stadium appears through both eras.

The prefecture's project record notes that the city area of Kochi was divided north and south by the railway for a long time, and that near the station the division was wide because there was a rolling stock depot on the north side. The band in the photographs thickens at the station as a direct reflection of the size of these grounds.

Up to the two station plazas

The idea of elevating the tracks is old. In 1971 elevating the tracks was planned to relieve congestion at level crossings, but local opposition movements and disasters from large typhoons piled up, and it was suspended once in fiscal 1977. Later studies set out the policy that elevating the railway was needed not only for congestion but also for town planning around the station, and the project was reorganized in a way that placed importance on dialogue with residents. The project was adopted in 1994, and in the following year, 1995, the city plans for three projects were decided at the same time: the continuous grade separation, land readjustment around the station, and the related streets. The elevated section is about 4.1 km, and removing 11 level crossings was set out as the goal. Among them, at the three level crossings that met trunk roads, congestion had become an everyday matter.

The work progressed in stages. In February 1999 the groundbreaking ceremony for the development around the station was held, and in 2002 the rolling stock depot was completed. In April 2005 the JR Freight Kochi Station was abolished, and freight handling also ended. The roles that had needed wide grounds came off one by one, and room was created around the station to make streets and blocks through land readjustment.

On February 26, 2008, the tracks were switched to the elevated structure, and the new Kochi Station opened. At the same time the north exit station plaza was completed, and in May of the following year, 2009, the south exit station plaza was completed. The frontage roads along the elevated structure were complete along the whole line in May 2010. Before that, in 2001, the streetcar stop that had been on the national highway in front of the station had been moved provisionally into the station plaza.

A single thin elevated line runs east to west at the position of the former band. A large roof sits over the station. The tracks curve in an arc to the north on the east side and run off to the top edge of the frame. Most of the width the band occupied has turned into roads and buildings, and the bundle of tracks that was on the ground has almost disappeared from the frame. South of the station, tall buildings line up along the main street. The fields at the upper right are almost filled with housing, and on the factory site north of the Kuma River large buildings with white roofs and wide parking lots spread out. The bridges over the Kagami River have also increased since the old eras, and at the lower right a long bridge crosses the river diagonally. Even so, the main street extending south from the station, the course of the Enokuchi River and the green of the castle's mountain are in the same positions as in the two old eras.

This area is low-lying flat land held between three rivers. You cannot tell from the photographs how far water is assumed to come in flooding or a tsunami; the City of Kochi's hazard map shows it.