Momochihama about 60 years ago and today

History of Momochihama

Momochihama is a town that inherited the name of a sandy beach. The ground itself was made by reclamation in the 1980s, but its name comes from the beach of Momochi, long familiar to the people of Fukuoka. Along the southern shore of Hakata Bay, a shallow sandy beach and low dunes, formed by sand carried by the Muromi River flowing to the west, continued, and on their inner side pine woods were planted like a band. From the Meiji era well into the 20th century, this beach was busy as a bathing beach within walking distance of the city area, and its name was known as a summer destination. It was about 4 km west of Tenjin in the city center, a location from which, by streetcar or bus, you could go straight from the back of the city area out onto the sand.

Clues to where the original water's edge ran remain a little inland. In 1276 (Kenji 2), in the Kamakura period, a stone defensive wall (ishitsuiji) was built along the coast of Hakata Bay as a defense against the Mongol invasions. Its remains are dotted around Nishijin, lined up in positions tracing the water's edge of the 13th century. The ground of this location spreads between the line where the people who piled the stones stood and the coastline after reclamation.

The era of sandy beach and pine woods

In the 1945-50 aerial photograph, there is no ground at the position where the town is. A wide area in the upper part of the frame is the water surface of Hakata Bay, and a white sandy beach touches it in a long, narrow strip. On the land side there is a band of pine woods along the beach, and on its inner side the rows of houses of Nishijin and fields appear in patches. The density of houses is low, and empty lots of bare earth stand out between the lots. It is a composition in which a single buffer band of sand and pines is inserted between the sea and the city area.

By 1961-69, the change on the inland side becomes clear. The rows of houses of Nishijin fill the gaps, the lines of the roads thicken, and the lots that were fields are covered with roofs. Even so, the positions of the coastline and the pine woods have hardly moved. The beach continues to be used as a bathing beach, and the arrangement in which the edge of the city area connects directly to the sandy beach is kept. The upper half of the frame is still water surface, and nothing appears in the area that later becomes blocks.

In the 1974-78 photograph too, the sandy beach and the pine woods remain as they were. Only the speed on the inland side changes, and the city area fills in from Nishijin to the south and toward Jigyo to the east. It was in 1981 that Fukuoka's Subway Kuko Line (Line 1) opened Nishijin Station inland, and at the time of this photograph roads on the ground and buses are the main means of transport. No large structures appear on the edge facing the sea, and the beach of Momochi was reaching its last period as the citizens' sea.

Reclaimed land jutting out into the sea

The scenery is replaced in the 1987-90 photograph. Square land extended by reclamation juts out toward the sea, and blocks just after development, with only the lines of lot roads drawn, occupy the middle of the frame. There are still few buildings, and vacant lots are left wide open. The City of Fukuoka named this reclaimed land "Seaside Momochi" and was carrying forward a plan to place housing, cultural facilities and business districts together. The band of sandy beach that once touched the sea is taken into the inside of the blocks in this one photograph, and the water's edge has moved several hundred meters out.

The use decided by an exposition

An exposition decided the use of the vacant lots. From March to September 1989, the Asian-Pacific Exposition (Yokatopia) was held with this reclaimed land as its main venue. Fukuoka Tower, 234 m tall, was completed in time for the exposition, and the tower clad entirely in glass became a landmark of the bay shore. After the exposition closed, the site of the venue was switched to cultural and business lots. In 1990 the Fukuoka City Museum opened, and a museum holding the gold seal excavated on Shikanoshima was placed on the former exposition site. In 1996 the Fukuoka City Public Library followed. In between, in 1993, Fukuoka Dome opened on Jigyohama next door to the east, and a ballpark with a retractable roof became the home of a professional baseball team. This means that the place that had been a sandy beach was replaced, within a little over ten years of development, by a cultural zone on the former exposition site and a town with a ballpark.

The face of the town differs from lot to lot. Along the northern edge an artificial sandy beach was made and opened as a seaside park, and broadcasting stations and information-related businesses gather in the area where the tower, the museum and the library stand. Toward the south, high-rise apartment buildings and detached houses line up, and on the inland Nishijin side there are many schools, beginning with Shuyukan High School, giving it a strong character of education. The dome and a high-rise hotel stand on Jigyohama to the east, and on game days the flow of people extends to the Momochihama side. The area that was a bathing beach has become a town holding a museum, a library and a ballpark within walking range.

Tracing the remnants of the beach

The sandy beach itself went under the town through reclamation, but clues remain. The line of the remains of the defensive wall shows the position of the old shoreline, and the scraps of pines remaining inland are remnants of the band planted along the beach. At the mouth of the Muromi River to the west, ice goby (shirouo) fishing takes place in spring, and the work of the river that carried the sand can be confirmed at the water's edge. Place names also remained. Momochihama (Sawara Ward) and Jigyohama (Chuo Ward) are both town names that carried on the names of the original beaches on ground made by reclamation.

The way this town came to be also shows in the numbers. The official land price (Chika Koji) of a residential area in Jigyohama 1-chome, Chuo Ward, about 1 km from the location, slipped steadily from 240,000 yen per square meter in 1999, stayed flat for three years at 222,000 yen from 2004 to 2006, and hit the bottom up to the 2026 publication at 217,000 yen in 2011 and 2012. From there it kept rising almost every year from 2013 on, returned to the 1999 level in 2016, and became 441,000 yen in the 2026 publication. It is double the bottom year, a pattern in which value was attached as time passed after reclamation and the facilities and flow of people of a town came together. The elevation is 1.9 m near the center of the town, 4.1 m on the inland Nishijin side and 3.3 m on the Jigyohama side to the east, higher the farther inland you go. There are no measured values to the north and west because those directions are sea. The ground is low just as the numbers say, so it is worth checking the assumptions for storm surges and tsunamis on the hazard map published by the City of Fukuoka.