Osaki Garden City about 60 years ago and today

History of Osaki Garden City

Osaki in Shinagawa Ward, Tokyo, lies at the bottom of a narrow valley cut by the Meguro River. The ground on the three sides facing the valley is low: 4.2 m at the center, 3.4 m in the east and 3.8 m in the north. In contrast, it reaches 15.8 m at the western edge and 12.5 m at the southern edge. It is land with a difference of 12 m between the valley bottom and its edges. Work that needs wide, flat surfaces comes into the low places, and houses line up on the high places. The past aerial photographs open in seven eras, and whichever one you choose, this division appears in the frame. Between the oldest photograph and the newest of the past ones, about fifty years pass.

Why the valley bottom was chosen

The Meguro River comes down cutting between the plateaus, enters from the upper left of the frame, skims the north of the station and passes out to the southeast. The flat land along the stream is narrow, and slopes rise immediately from both sides. The band where roads for carrying goods and water could be secured together was limited to the small width of this valley bottom. When Osaki Station opened in 1901, a third condition, the railway, was added there. The low land, where the means of shipping goods out had come together, was taken by factories before homes. Since the lowness of a valley is also a property tied to how easily water collects, please also look at the hazard map that the ward publishes officially for the assumptions about rain and river water.

The valley bottom in seven eras

The oldest photograph, from around 1936-42, is black and white with coarse grain, and the outlines of roofs are blurred. Even so, in the upper right corner of the frame you can see parallel lines spreading in a bundle. A track running vertically lies in the center, and from the upper left to the center a wide road descends diagonally. A site where long, narrow buildings are lined up facing the same direction lies in the lower middle. The lower left is a cluster of small roofs, and beyond it the city area continues to the edge of the frame.

The 1945-50 photograph has strong contrast, with white and black clearly divided. In the upper right of the frame a dark rectangular water surface and a shore cut in straight lines appear. The river course passing above the center shines white, and even the shape of its meanders can be followed. The row of long buildings in the lower middle is easier to read building by building than in the previous era. In the left half there is almost no space between roofs, and no open land can be found.

If you switch to 1961-69, the frame fills with fine roofs. On the west side of the station, several rectangular buildings of a different size from the surrounding rows of houses are grouped together, with the outline of the site divided by straight lines. The roofs of the buildings shine whitish and look like one block of surface within a photograph filled with fine patterns. Almost no narrow roads pass inside the site, which is divided differently from the streets outside. South of the station the tracks split in a Y shape, and large buildings are placed between them too. In the lower middle, parallel buildings and bundles of tracks extend long and vertically. The contrast of large surfaces lined up on the valley bottom and small roofs packed on the slopes above is clearest in this photograph.

In 1974-78 color is added, but the colors are faded, with strong green and ocher. The bundle of lines at the upper right becomes ocher, and in the lower middle bright surfaces of bare ground and rows of large buildings line up. Only one lot at the lower left has a brighter tone, and a seam is visible. 1979-83 is sandy all over, taken in a season when the green of trees is scarce. A blue rectangular water surface appears at the upper left, and blue roofs begin to mix in among the buildings in the lower middle. 1984-86 is dark and bluish overall, and a large light-blue roof and a surface with a fine grid sit on the same site.

In the 1987-90 photograph, large light-blue and gray roofs line up on the site west of the station. In the lower middle a large blue roof and ocher bare ground lie next to each other, and to their east many tracks extend in parallel. Orange roofs have been added to the bundle of lines at the upper right. A small water surface surrounded by trees lies above the center, different in tone from the way the surrounding roofs are packed. Only the valley bottom moves, and the rows of houses on the slopes above hardly change shape whichever era you choose.

From factories to blocks

On a valley bottom where factories gathered, the position changes when the direction of the means of transport changes. In 2002, a line from the waterfront area was extended to Osaki Station, and the station became a knot for transfers. Once it became a place from which both central Tokyo and the bay area could be reached in a short time, the reason for factories to keep holding land of the same size weakened. The site that had been used as an electrical machinery factory moved its production role elsewhere, and in the late 2010s it opened as blocks combining offices, homes and a plaza people can walk through. As an example of one wide lot changing its role entirely, there is also the waterfront of Toyosu in Tokyo.

Today's valley bottom and the record of values

In today's photograph, tall buildings with large white roofs gather around the station, and elevated roads pass between them. In the lower middle the bundle of parallel tracks remains, and the shape of the long, narrow yard is almost the same as in the past eras. The left half remains a cluster of houses, but the green of trees has increased in patches. It can be read that only the valley bottom was replaced and the slopes above were left as they were.

The record of official land prices (Chika Koji) is at a residential area in Osaki 4-chome, 495 m away. It begins at 1,000,000 yen per square meter in 1987, jumps to 1,200,000 yen in the following year, 1988, and hits the ceiling up to the 2026 publication. From there it enters a long decline, and the 480,000 yen of 2004 and 2005 is the lowest value up to the 2026 publication. In the 2026 publication it is 1,000,000 yen, having recovered to a little over 80% of 1988. The high prices set while the factories were running and the values after the former site changed into blocks lie on the same single line graph.

Work that needed a wide surface came into the bottom of the valley, and after that work left, another wide surface came in. The change is in the contents; the container is still the valley. If you go back and forth between the seven eras, you can see that the area that changed fits neatly in the band of the valley bottom.