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Junichirou Tanizaki wrote in the diary of Admiral Uki (77 years old) as a passage in the diary of the old man (transforming the original katakana into Kana).

"... Who's job that made Tokyo today such a shallow turbulent city, everyone is a countryside, a peasant, a politician who does not know the goodness of old Tokyo Isn't it? I guess everyone is the one who caught up in that beautiful river of Nihonbashi, Armor Bridge, Tsukijibashi, and Yanagibashi. Isn't it a kind of guy who doesn't know that there was an era when white fish swam on the Sumida River? If you die, you don't have to be buried somewhere, but I don't want to be buried in a land that has lost any connection to yourself. ・... Kyoto is the safest in any way. ・... If you get a rabbit buried in the corner Kyoto, people from Tokyo will come to play all the time. "Oh, this is my grandfather's grave," he said, "I'll stop by and turn one of incense stick." （19-139）

　This is, of course, Tanizaki's own feelings, but Tanizaki died at the age of 79 on July 30, 1965, and was buried at Kagaya Honenin, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto.

　At the time of publication, Nihonbashi should not have been covered by expressways yet because it was published in the magazine Chuo Koron from November 1961 to May 1962 issue, from Chuokoron-Sha in May 1962. At that time, river pollution was the worst, and the Sumida River Fireworks Festival was interrupted from 1961 (1961) to 1977 (1977) due to odor damage caused by water pollution.

 　As mentioned in this blog, Takeshi Kaiko described the situation near Nihonbashi just before the 1964 Olympics in Zubari Tokyo.

Takeshi Kaiko "Zubari Tokyo" by CAM | Chuo-ku Tourism Association correspondent blog (chuo-kanko.or.jp)

　Junichirou Tanizaki's book published in 1962 describes the destruction of the landscape due to the installation of expressways, although the water pollution of the Sumida River has been lamented.　　　　Junichirou Tanizaki was alive until July 1965, so you may have known in the last years that Nihonbashi was covered with expressways, but did you actually see the sight?

　Junichirou Tanizaki, who wrote, "Hometown is devastated by a rural samurai and there is no remnants of the old Edo period," and in that later years, if you saw the real scene covered by Nihonbashi on an expressway, you would have been lamented.