Official
Traces of Showa and Japanese National Railways remaining at Shin-Nihonbashi Station, the 50th anniversary of its opening
The streets are excited about the 150th anniversary of the opening of the railway, but Shin-Nihonbashi Station in Chuo-ku celebrated its 50th anniversary this year.
Chuo-ku has 9 subway lines, but there are only 3 JR stations. One of them, we participated in the "Chuo-ku Tourism Association correspondent-only tour" at Shin-Nihonbashi Station, and with the guidance of the station staff, we explored the station premises and areas that we could not normally enter.
Fifty years ago, the era was Showa, and JR was still the era of Japanese National Railways. I found traces of Showa and Japanese National Railways remaining at Shin-Nihonbashi Station.
Traces of the Japanese National Railways on the platform
Shin-Nihonbashi Station was 4 stories underground, from the first basement floor with the ticket gate, down the special evacuation stairs that are not normally accessible, passed through the passage, and descended to the fourth basement floor with the platform.
Near the home ceiling on the 4th basement floor, there was a station name display of the old ShinNihonbashi from the Showa era. This is written in the typeface "Sumimaru Gothic" used during the Japanese National Railways era.
Unlike the current typeface of JR, the corners are slightly rounded, gentle and modest, and I feel nostalgic.
I looked a little bit about "Sumimaru Gothic". The official name is "Sumimaru Kaku Gothic Body", and it seems to be a typeface originally developed by the Japanese National Railways in 1960.
At that time, at the Japanese National Railways, craftsmen wrote the station display by hand. It is difficult to put out the sharp angle of the horn with a brush, and this typeface, which is rounded by removing the corners from the Gothic body, was adopted.
In particular, the hiragana characters of "Sumimaru Gothic" have a unique curve and have a unique shape. It seems that it is a character created in consideration of the ease of writing by craftsmen.
In 1960, the Japanese National Railways will use this typeface to unify the postings. For the first time, I made a typeface sample and spread it nationwide so that no matter who wrote it, the same characters were used.
JR East will change to a new logo, but JR Central still uses the Sumimaru Gothic body, which inherited the Sumimaru Gothic of Japan National Railways.
The approach light of Showa is lit.
Thick cylinders supporting the platform on the fourth basement floor are lined up at equal intervals along the platform. And the "approach display light" at the top of the cylinder was from the Showa era.
The approach display light is lit when a train enters the platform and notifies the approach of the train. Recently, it has been replaced with LED display lights, and the number of light-type display lights has been reduced. Even now, it was lit in white.
On the platform, thick cylinders are lined up at equal intervals, but only one part has a wall-shaped pillar with an arch. It seems that the Ginza Line is running on top of this.
On the wall of the home, a blue pipeline extends sideways along the wall. It seems that this pipeline is a "water pipe".
A lot of spring water comes out at the Sobu Line tunnel deep underground, so it collects spring water and sends it outside by pipeline, and it seems that it discharges water to Tachiaigawa far away.
As mentioned above, I participated in a tour of Shin-Nihonbashi Station, and showed other valuable things that are not usually seen, traces of the Showa and Japanese National Railways eras.
Thank you to everyone at Shin-Nihonbashi Station for the guidance and the station staff at Tokyo Station for their support. I learned a lot with an easy-to-understand explanation.
Shin-Nihombashi Station
Address: 4, Nihonbashimuromachi, Chuo-ku
Date of opening: July 15, 1972