Numazu Station Area about 60 years ago and today

History of Numazu Station Area

In Numazu, where the Gotemba Line joins the Tokaido Line, there are two urban areas of different character on either side of the station. South of the station a long-established urban area spreads toward the Kano River, and an area where rows of houses filled in after the north exit opened after the war lies to the north. In the aerial photographs, a wide band of tracks crosses the lower part of the center of the frame in a bow from west to northeast, and the Kano River flows across the lower part of the frame in a large arc. The two lines, tracks and river, hardly change position in any era, and you can read how the density of the town between and outside them changed as you advance the eras.

The band of tracks and the arc of the river

The station opened in 1889, the year the Tokaido Line opened along its entire length. It was in 1923 that the town merged with Yanagihara Village to become the City of Numazu, and around then, in 1913 and 1926, the urban area was also struck by great fires. No steps or slopes can be found in the frame. The urban area sits on sediment carried by the lower reaches of the Kano River, and in 1958 the Kanogawa Typhoon brought great damage to the city. For how far water would spread if it overflowed on the low flat land near the river, the City of Numazu issues a flood hazard map.

In the black-and-white 1961-69 photograph, station grounds bundling many tracks extend long west of the station, standing out as a thick gray band. Past the station the band turns northeast and splits into two directions toward the right of the frame. North of the tracks, strips of paddies still remain all over the left half of the upper part of the frame, and to their south, up to the tracks, low rows of houses spread along a grid of roads. In the middle near the top edge, away to the north of the station, there is an oval sports ground, and in the upper right of the frame several long factory roofs line up.

South of the tracks it looks different. The rows of houses fill the spaces between the roads without leaving any, and wide roads pass straight east to west and north to south. The road heading from the station front toward the river is also thick, showing that these are blocks of a redrawn grid, different from the look of an old town where narrow alleys are tangled. In the lower part of the frame, the Kano River flows from right to left, changes direction greatly southwest of the station and bends south. The water spreads wide and gray, and white sandbars peek out on the inside of the bend. On the opposite bank to the southeast of the river a mountain covered with forest rises black, and in the lower left corner a sandy beach and the band of pine woods along it appear. The river mouth opening to the sea and the port are outside the frame.

A grid drawn over burned ground

There is a reason the roads south of the tracks are straight. In July 1945, the urban area of Numazu was burned in a large-scale air raid. In January 1947 the city received project approval for war damage reconstruction land readjustment; the work area covering the center south of the station alone was 19.9 hectares, and the work area covering the Takashima and Takasawa area north of the station reached 63.1 hectares. It was work to redraw a new grid of roads over the burned ground and reallocate the lots of land, and the replotting disposition of the central work area was completed in 1985. In 1956 the north exit of the station was opened, and it became possible to enter the station directly from the north side of the tracks too.

In the 1974-78 photograph the band of tracks changes into a thick band of rusty brown. The rows of houses north of the tracks have become far denser, and the strips of paddies remain only a little at the upper left edge of the frame. Only the band at the top edge has a tone leaning toward gray. Toward the left of the frame, factories with large white roofs line up along the tracks, and south of the tracks tall buildings increase near the station. Northeast of the station, between the two branches of the tracks, a corner that looks like a danchi (housing complex), with many rows of white buildings facing the same direction, has been made, filling a place where fields and houses were mixed in 1961-69. The Kano River is a greenish water surface, with sandbars floating long and narrow in the river.

Northwest of the station, among the rows of houses a little to the north away from the tracks, a large white roof holding a wide parking lot appears in the 1979-83 photograph. Among the fine rows of houses only this roof is strikingly large, occupying a whole block by itself. The paddies in the upper part of the frame have almost all been replaced by houses and buildings. On the Kano River dark water spreads to the full width between the banks, and the sandbars can hardly be seen. In the 1987-90 photograph, a tall building stands beside that large roof, and the blocks north of the tracks lose their gaps as much as those to the south. By this era, the difference in density between north and south of the tracks had almost vanished.

The band of tracks that does not move

In today's photograph too, the station grounds west of the station remain with their width kept, and they continue to be one of the largest surfaces in the frame. Just north of the station new buildings with white roofs line up, and the shape of the station front on the north exit side looks different from the 1987-90 photograph. The large white roof that appeared in 1979-83 also remains in the same place. The oval sports ground in the middle of the upper part of the frame and the long factory roofs lined up in the upper right have not changed position from 1961-69 to today's photograph. A tendency can be read from this frame: even when rows of houses are replaced, the facilities with large surfaces are the ones that stay in the same place. The project to elevate the tracks around the station received approval in fiscal 2006, and in October 2023 construction of the main railway facilities began at the new freight terminal at the relocation site. The relocation site is outside the frame, and the band of tracks in the frame divides the town north and south at the same position whichever era you choose.

In today's photograph the Kano River shows wide whitish sandbars, and the threads of water look thinner than in the 1961-69 photograph. The levees on both banks have become green bands, and many bridges cross the river. The amount of water and how the sandbars look differ greatly with the day of shooting, but the shape of the arc itself has hardly moved since 1961-69. The sandy beach and the band of pine woods in the lower left corner also keep the same line in every era, showing that the urban area meets the sea there. At a residential area in Kitatakashima-cho about 1 km north of the station, in the land price record up to the 2026 official land prices (Chika Koji), 230,000 yen per square meter in 1995 is the highest value and 127,000 yen in 2007 is the lowest.