The fourth episode of Kyobashi Monogatari. It's a continuation from the last time.
Until the last time → Kyobashi Monogatari [1] [2] [3]
This is a postcard depicting the cityscape of Minami Temmacho, which had undergone a major transformation in the Taisho era (around 1921). The postcard says "Kyobashi-dori". Currently, it is called "Chuo-dori", but in old postcards, "Ginza-dori", "Kyobashi-dori" and "Nihonbashi-dori" were printed for each location. The names of each street were sent to all over the country with photos, and the development of Tokyo was visually understood.
However, Tokyo was attacked by an event on September 1, 1923.
The school on this day was the opening ceremony, Saturday, and the children were trying to eat lunch about their homes. The cause of the damage was fires that occurred in various places after that, rather than the collapse of buildings due to the shaking of the 11:58 earthquake. Minami Temmacho is no exception, and the city is burned.
I see it from around Konyabashi, a little upstream of the Kyobashi River. The daikon riverbank at the end of the revetment of the Kyobashi River has been burned down. However, the large building in Minami Temmacho seems to have not collapsed.
I'll get close to Kyobashi and check it. The postcard below shows the bridge and Minami Temmacho over the Kyobashi River from the Ginza side. Kyobashi survived the collapse, and the buildings of the tall Daiichi Mutual Hall in the center, Daido Life on the left, 34 Bank, and Toyokuni Bank on the right have not collapsed. The "three dome roofs" remained.
In the Great Kanto Earthquake, many famous buildings collapsed. Ryounkaku (Asakusa 12th floor), which was said to be the tallest, was also damaged, and the first mutual hall in Minami Temmacho replaces the tallest building in this area. After that, the first mutual hall will look at Tokyo, which is recovering, from the highest point.
I will check the status of the damage caused by the earthquake from the first mutual hall. First of all, the opposite side of Ginza is the Nihonbashi area. The town directly below is the current Kyobashi 2-chome, Minami Temmacho 2-3-chome at that time.
Although it turned into a pile of rubble, the Chiyoda-kan, which was completed three months before the earthquake, did not collapse. The postcard was created by Chiyoda Life Insurance Co. We sent postcards to various places and told them that the head office building had not fallen. It seems that the purpose was to make the contractor feel safe. At that time, there was no radio yet. As information was complicated in various places, postcards functioned greatly as a media that visually conveys information about the earthquake disaster.
On the other hand. This postcard is also a postcard made by Dai-ichi Life Insurance. It will be Kyobashi-dori on September 28, taken from around Chiyoda-kan.
Something like huts and tents are built on the side of the road, and many people gather on the street. It can be seen that it is chaotic, but the power of those who are confronting reconstruction is also transmitted.
Let's check the Ginza area from the first mutual hall. Although rubble is piled up on the side of Kyobashi at the lower right, you can see that the building on the banks of the radish behind it is beginning to build something like Kariya.
In Hashigami, you can see things like wagons and rear cars, and it is in the middle of restoration. The large building on the right side of the street is the Okura Gumi Main Building, which survived the earthquake. On the left side of the street, you can see a little Matsuya's steel frame, which will open later.
Ginza Street was a luxury city that developed from brick streets in Meiji period. But here the end of that era was announced, and the start of a new city was started.
I'll check the status of other buildings. It is the direction where you can see Tokyo Station in the back. You can also see how the houses are being built and reconstructed.
The building on the left is Katakura-kan, and the right is star pharmaceutical with a diagonal window. The Katakura-kan will continue to expand and grow, but the Hoshi Pharmaceutical building has been damaged and will be rebuilt after this. The Kajibashi-dori, which runs in the middle, will be widened by the earthquake reconstruction project.
Due to the Great East Japan Earthquake, the marriage ceremony of His Imperial Highness Higashimiya (later Emperor Showa), which was scheduled to be held in November, has been postponed. He married on January 26 of the following year, celebrated on June 5, and a celebration tower will be built in Kyobashi.
It is a photo of the Ginza area from Minami Temmacho, but you can see that the new cityscape of Ginza has already been shaped. I guess this celebration gave new hope and courage to Ginza Street, which is recovering. Five months later, the department store Matsuzakaya will open in Owaricho on Ginza Street.
On the other hand, Minami Temmacho. Since the large building in this neighborhood did not collapse, from the Ginza side, it seems that the scenery has hardly changed before the earthquake. Actually looking at the postcard, I had a hard time identifying the times before or after the earthquake.
The clues were the letters written on the postcard and the ballaque-style building in front of the left hand. If this building is shown, it will be the scenery of Minami Temmacho after the earthquake.
It was around this time that a lot of shared buses came to be seen. This is the scenery of 1926. This year was also the year when the radio broadcasting started.
Despite the earthquake, the cityscape of Minami Temmacho, which left the scent of the Taisho era, will enter the era of Showa as if nothing had happened. From the point of view of the city of Ginza, which looks for the best way to be reborn, the streets of Minami Temmacho are nostalgic, seeming to be watching over, and may have looked strange.
But here suddenly a change occurred in the cityscape of Minami Temmacho.
The dome roof of the Daido Life Building on the left stretched out.
This Tongari roof is as if the design of the main pillar of Kyobashi in the Taisho era has been transferred. When replacing the bridge, it would not mean that foresee the future and made the design of the main pillar into a Tongari style. If anything, the city of Minami Temmacho seems to be returning to the old days rather than being reborn.
In any case, I think it is true that the cityscape of Minami Temmacho and the design of Kyobashi have been integrated.
In this way, the cityscape of Minami Temmacho, which survived the Great Kanto Earthquake, inherited the atmosphere of the Taisho era as it was in the Showa era, and continued to watch the city of Ginza, which is recovering.
Followed.
