Musashi-Urawa about 60 years ago and today

History of Musashi-Urawa

Musashi-Urawa Station stands around where the southern edge of the Omiya Plateau breaks off and the lowland made by the Arakawa River begins. The height figures also back up that this station stands on the edge. If you read north to south, the north is 6.6 m, the foot of the station 7.3 m, and from there the south drops to 5.8 m. East to west too, the east is 6.9 m and the west 6.2 m, the side closer to the Arakawa River being lower, and the difference in height among the five measuring points stays at about 1.5 m. The place name Numakage (numa means marsh) remains in this area, suggesting that it was land where water collected easily. On the high ground the town of Urawa grew early, and the flat lowland continuing to its south was long used as paddies. At the boundary between town and paddies, first tracks came through, and then, a little over ten years later, a station was placed. It is land where the tracks came before the station, and the appearance of the frame becomes something else before and after the station was built.

The boundary between town and paddies

The 1945-50 aerial photograph captures that north-south contrast as it is. The upper third of the frame is a town where roofs line up without gaps, narrow roads branch in many layers, and a railway line runs diagonally from the upper right toward the lower right. Along the tracks there is also a corner where long, narrow buildings line up together. From the middle downward it turns completely into paddies. Long, narrow lots line up all over, and the ridges between paddies form a faint mesh continuing to the bottom edge. One narrow road pierces the paddies vertically, extending straight without a break. Settlements only continue thinly like bands along that road and along the edges of the paddies. Slightly left of the center of the frame a small black water surface appears, and in the upper left there is also a long, narrow black water surface. The right half is land where lots of fields and homesteads surrounded by dark masses of trees are scattered here and there. The boundary between town and paddies lies across the middle of the frame, and south of it no place where people gather can be found.

It is in 1961-69 that only the town side gains thickness, and this is the photograph the viewer loads when no era is specified. The density of roofs in the upper third rises further, the boundary juts out a little to the south, and new lots begin to be carved between it and the paddies. Even so, the lower half of the frame is paddies as before, with stripes of lots lined up to the bottom edge. Slightly above the center a square flat area standing out white appears, with a black water surface and a dark mass of woods next to it. The vertical road through the paddies also passes in the same position and with the same narrowness as in the previous era. However much you search the frame of this era, the station appears nowhere. The railway line only runs diagonally across the right side of the frame, and there is no shadow of tracks in the center.

The south turning yellowish brown

In 1974-78 color appears, and you can read how the south side changes. A wide range south of the boundary changes into yellowish-brown withered fields and bare ground, and buildings with blue roofs and white roofs begin to come in here and there. At the center left, brown bare ground and a greenish water surface line up, and outlines with straight edges show the hand of development. From the lower middle to the right, several corners have formed where buildings with large roofs line up facing the same direction, taking the form of factories and warehouses. The paddies have been pushed to the bottom edge and the lower left corner. And one thin line can be read that descends gently from near the top of the left edge of the frame toward the center, and from there turns almost east-west and runs off to the right edge. It is the stage at which tracks have begun to pass a little south of the boundary between town and paddies.

The 1979-83 photograph sinks into a dark greenish brown overall, with the color of a season when plants have withered. The diagonal line becomes a clear band from the left edge of the frame toward the center, continuing as it crosses a thick road. The yellowish-brown bare ground at the center left spreads further, with the land divided by square outlines. On the south side the roofs of factories and warehouses increase, and the fine roofs of houses line up as if filling the spaces between them. At the lower left and the bottom edge, lots of paddies still remain as stripes. Even so, there is no form of a station on the diagonal line, and no long, narrow structure that looks like a platform can be found anywhere.

The year the cross was born

The 1984-86 photograph is the one that changed most at this location. A wide white band newly passes through the center of the frame from top to bottom. It descends from the upper left with a slight tilt and crosses the diagonal line partway. The cross where the two lines meet was born here. Around the place where they cross, the whiteness of brand-new paving remains, and the outlines of the lots have been arranged with sharp corners. The surrounding buildings are all low, and the shadows their roofs cast are short. The long, narrow water surface in the upper left and the yellowish-brown open space at the center left are in the same positions as in the previous era.

In 1987-90, the white band settles into a gray band of tracks, and the form in which the north-south line and the diagonal line cross in the center is complete. Low buildings begin to gather around the crossing, and white lots that look like parking lots can be seen beside the tracks. Even so, nothing casts a long shadow. At the center left, a blue water surface shines squarely inside an open space leveled in brown, and on its west side a black water surface and woods remain. The paddies remain only as a few brown lots in the lower left corner and along the bottom edge.

A station area where shadows lengthen

Even after the two lines crossed, a station was not built at once. The diagonal line is the Musashino Line, which opened in 1973 and passed through this location, but no station was placed at the crossing point. The station opened in 1985. On the day the Saikyo Line opened as the north-south line, Musashi-Urawa Station opened at the same time as a transfer station with the Musashino Line. There was a gap of a little over ten years between the tracks coming through and the station being built, and during that time the photographs show only tracks passing through. It was later still, after the 2000s began, that the area around the station changed into a town of tall buildings; the blocks adjoining the station were rebuilt in turn, and tall housing lined up along the tracks. The administrative frame also moved: in 2001 the City of Urawa, the City of Omiya and the City of Yono merged to become the City of Saitama, and this station was placed in a position linking two lines in the south of the city.

In today's photograph, just west of the cross, several long, narrow rectangular buildings in a dark, sunken color line up here and there from north to south. Among the surrounding roofs, which appear white or pale gray, only these buildings stand out as dark masses. The spaces between the buildings are still filled with low roofs, and the tall things are gathered in a single row along the tracks. If you go back and forth with the 1987-90 photograph, it becomes clear that the same place was low roofs and white vacant lots. On the other hand, some things remain. The water surface at the center left is in the same position as the small black water surface of 1945-50, and it is now surrounded by green space and buildings with blue roofs. The long, narrow water surface in the upper left has also not changed its shape, still embraced by woods. The paddies are no longer anywhere in the frame, and gray roofs fill even the bottom edge where striped lots once continued. The phrase "the boundary between town and paddies" has lost its meaning, and the place where the boundary was has become the middle of the town. Even though the paddies were replaced by town, the lowness of the ground descending to the south has not changed. The City of Saitama publishes an official hazard map of the range of assumed flooding.

The record of values covers far fewer years than have passed since the two lines came together. A residential area in Numakage 1-chome, about 470 m from the location, was 340,000 yen per square meter in 2021 and 424,000 yen in 2025. It rose by 84,000 yen in four years and became 447,000 yen in the 2026 official land prices (Chika Koji), and in this location's record up to the 2026 publication, 340,000 yen in 2021 is the lowest and 2026 the highest. It is a pattern in which high values came in the years after its position as a station where two lines cross was settled.