Universal City (Western Konohana Waterfront) about 60 years ago and today

History of Universal City (Western Konohana Waterfront)

At the mouth of the Aji River, a long, narrow stretch of land made by tamping down soil carried by the river and the sea juts out. This is the western end of Konohana Ward in the City of Osaka, and ground made later takes up most of the site. The reason factories gathered here is simple. A deep waterway that could take large ships ran right alongside, a wide surface without slope could be obtained in one piece, and places to run railway branch lines for carrying cargo were also available on the town side. Factories handling metals, facilities for assembling ship hulls and round tanks for storing oil stood shoulder to shoulder, and for nearly a century it remained a site that people could not enter. The history of this land is that the whole of that site was replaced by a place that gathers people.

Three of the five measurement points show values lower than the surface of the sea. The lowest, the northern point, is 1.2 m below sea level, the center 0.2 m below, the west 0.1 m below, and the south exactly 0 m. Only the eastern point, showing 1.7 m, is an exception, and this can be read as a value resting on the fill of roads or embankments. Osaka Prefecture and the City of Osaka publish assumption maps for storm surges, tsunamis and river flooding. If you look first at which colors cover this area, the way you take the figure of 1.2 m below sea level changes.

The winding river and the factories

The aerial photograph from around 1928 is dark overall, with no clues of color. Even so, much can be read. The left half of the frame is a uniformly dark surface, either sea or tidal flat. From the center to the upper right, a wide dark band passes through in a large arc. This is the Aji River. On its right bank, a town area of fine roofs is packed tight, and on the near side across the river dozens of long, narrow buildings line up facing the same way. The factories were already here. Between the buildings there is still much vacant land, and curving roads and lines cross the site diagonally. In the middle of the left side and at the lower left of the frame there are white blank polygons, where the areas the photography did not reach remain as they are.

If you open the photograph from around 1936-42, the density of the same site is completely different. Long, narrow buildings line up without gaps, and even the ridges of the roofs can be made out. In the lower left several white round storage tanks are grouped together, and to their southwest there are long, narrow shapes that look like ship hulls, a jetty, and a crowd of small boats. On the water surface at the upper left, thin streaks run branching out, which can be read as the pattern of a tidal flat at low tide. To its southeast the line of the water's edge switches to a straight line, so the boundary between lines drawn by people and natural lines can be told apart here. Through the center of the site, from northwest to southeast, one thick straight band passes. It is a passage where a road and a bundle of tracks overlap. On the left bank of the river, long quays and white rectangular warehouses form rows, and small boats float here and there on the river. In the town area on the right, one oval track can be found.

The burned town and the dug-in water

In the 1945-50 photograph, the look of the right bank of the river changes. The roofs that were packed densely are gone, and in a rough bright surface only the grid of streets remains. If you go back and forth with the photograph from around 1936-42, the extent of what was lost can be seen from how the lines remain. The factory side was not unharmed either, and bright bare ground spreads where buildings have dropped out. At the bottom edge of the frame there is a white band, and at the lower right and lower left there are light gray rectangular bands, which are also areas the photography did not reach. In the center of the site, a dark water surface appears cutting into the land in a squared U shape. It is a dug-in basin for bringing in ships, and on its eastern edge an oval white mass lies. It is a shape that looks like a ship hull.

The 1961-69 photograph is in light gray, and by default this era opens. From the middle of the left side downward, countless white round storage tanks line up. It is a group of tanks for storing oil, and piers and ship hulls thread between them. Above the center, a thin water surface cuts in from the north, and one bridge spans it. In the center a wide, bright rectangular vacant lot is placed, and to its left dark masses gather. They are either materials or trees. From the middle of the right side of the frame downward, the water surface is filled with fine grains. Its texture is clearly different from a smooth water surface, and it can be read as a surface with something floating on it. On the dark water surface at the upper right, white ships are scattered here and there. The place where the station would be built is, in this era, a materials yard and quays of the factories, with one long, narrow bright bar-shaped object lying diagonally on it.

Three photographs in color

From 1974-78 the photographs have color. The whole has a tone leaning from pale purple toward pink, and the water surfaces sink into gray-purple. The group of storage tanks is divided into two places, upper left and lower left, and white circles shine in clusters. In the center a large roof with a gray grid pattern appears. It is how a roof with many ridges looks from directly above. The water surface on the right, which was filled with grains in 1961-69, has returned to a smooth gray. This means that what was floating there has been cleared away. Toward the river a wide, flat, bright beige surface lies, with a dark band running diagonally across it. In the lower left there is a large, long, narrow white structure, which can be read as a facility for handling ship hulls. In the lower right of the frame the color of the water switches along a straight line, and the trace of the piecing together shows as it is.

The 1979-83 photograph has a dark, deep tone, and the bundle of tracks is easiest to read. Dozens of thin parallel lines line up, converging toward the southeast. East of the bundle there is still wide bright beige bare ground, with dark bands of materials between. In the center a large greenish rectangular lot appears, and one verdigris roof has been added as a striking color.

By 1984-86 the details can be followed. A large white rectangular roof sits in the center, and reddish-brown bare ground lies to its south. The lot that was greenish in 1979-83 has been replaced just as it was. White rectangular buildings and blue roofs have moved into the vacant land toward the river, and along the quays small white boxes form rows. The bundle of tracks is still there, and the order in which the gap between the bundle and the quays fills era by era can be seen.

A gate opened on the former factory site

The area where metal and shipbuilding factories had lined up thinned its role as the layout of industry changed. The City of Osaka took a policy of remaking its western waterfront as a place where people gather, and Universal Studios Japan, which opened in 2001, was placed on the vacant site. In the same year, Universal City Station opened partway along the Sakurajima Line. The order was that a passenger station was added to a cargo branch line, so the role of carrying people was placed on tracks made for freight.

In today's aerial photograph, a corner in the center is completely different from its surroundings. Curving paths, dark green tree crowns, small roofs of mismatched colors, and round water surfaces fill the site. At the northwestern end several large white roofs line up. On the east side several tall, sharp-cornered buildings are grouped together, with their rooftop surfaces uniformly bright. The station is at their feet. A high road crossing the river passes diagonally across the bottom of the frame and descends into the town area on the far bank. In the upper left a wide, flat brown surface remains, and you can see that there is still unused reclaimed land. In the lower left, the group of storage tanks, a large ship hull and red cranes sit in the same positions, telling you that the functions of factories and port have not all disappeared.

If you move through the seven photographs from around 1928 to 1984-86 in order from the oldest, the buildings on the ground are almost entirely replaced. Even so, two things do not move. They are the way the Aji River bends and the angle of the dug-in water surface cutting into the land. Only the shape of the water remains, and the things placed inside it have changed three times.

The official land price (Chika Koji) can be followed at a residential site in Tanaka 1-chome, Minato Ward, Osaka, about 988 m away. For the ten years from 2013 it was either 213,000 yen or 214,000 yen per square meter, never going beyond a range of 1,000 yen. It turns upward from 2023, rising a step for four years in a row to 216,000 yen, 220,000 yen, 227,000 yen and 238,000 yen.