From Yasunari Kawabata's novel "Station in the Shower", which condenses deep sorrow and jealousy, to the popular song "Eru" sung by Maria Takeuchi. In Japanese literature and art, the station is a very common image. However, in addition to witnessing the separation of countless idiot men and women and the poetry and hesitation of literary scholars, the station, as an import of the Industrial Revolution, also dominated the process of Japan's modernization and the emergence of public consciousness.
Railways and stations have transformed the former urban space, allowing modern Japanese citizens to share the same social culture and collective consciousness – no matter where you come from or what your social status is, everyone is equal in the stations where the train roars by. The emergence of the front space caters to the voices of the emerging strata of the "Taisho Democracy" era that are eager to enter the political arena. Similarly, the station, as the nerve center of the city, allows the former wilderness village to be connected to the big city, and traveling through the station has become a sign of social status. In the name of the breeding industry, the station and the railway transformed every inch of the fabric of a late-developing country, and also quietly participated in the life journey of countless individuals in the changing historical situation.
Harajuku Station, once considered the oldest surviving Western station in Tokyo, was demolished after the Tokyo Olympics. (Image from response.jp)
The meeting point of the station world, all kinds of people, etc
What was the first impression of a railway station in Japan? Long-standing first-hand sources are hard to find, but this book finds an ingenious incision to unearth the image of the station in literary works. For example, the Meiji era literary hero Natsume Soseki's masterpiece "Sanshiro" begins with the story of the railway station.
Kumamoto student Sanshiro took the train to Tokyo to study, getting off at Nagoya Station for the night. Unfortunately, the guest room was too full, and he could only share a room with a young woman who also took the train, but he did not dare to cross the bottom line in his heart, and casually found a reason to sleep with the woman behind his back. The next morning, after saying goodbye, the young woman gently scolded, "You are really a person without courage."
It is the railway stations that make this story possible. At the end of the 19th century, it was only near the stations on the railway that it was possible to meet young women who had never met and needed to sleep together. Although the next day, although it is necessary to continue to take the railway, no one knows which service to take or where to go, and the people who have stayed in the same house are likely to be separated from each other from this day. This background makes people have more expectations for a night of spring supper, but Sanshiro actively rejects this dewy love affair, showing that he is a "nerd" who has just entered the society.
Before the railway era, the main transit point for Japanese travel was "Sue-eki", but because the Edo shogunate strictly controlled the movement of residents from all over the country, it was impossible for women, especially married women, to use "Su-eki", and the "Sanshiro"-style dew love affair naturally did not occur. Even if there is any affair, it is a little disconnected love between passing samurai and migrant women, in fact, the wives of many Japanese restorationists are from tavern geisha, such as Sakamoto Ryoma and Aaron, Kido Takayoshi and Matsuko, Ito Hirobumi and Plum, and so on.
The traditional Japanese "Suei". Image source: naraijuku.com
Indeed, the traditional "Ekijuku" will also produce many touching stories, such as Matsuko's message to Kido Takayoshi, to avoid being hunted down and killed by the shogunate police (the new selection group), and more of the "Talented Son Yoshiko's attachment to the farewell" kind of story, which only a specific group of people can experience. Entering the railway era, the Meiji government no longer restricts the travel of the people, and the young woman will not be blinded when she goes out alone, so any two people, no matter how rich or how they are born, may appear in the common space of the station, and the unfulfilled relationship between Mishiro and the young woman naturally makes every reader feel that it is possible to happen to themselves, and then resonate. Perhaps because of this, in the early days of the railway, the Japanese did not use the word "station" to describe the station as they do today, but directly used the transliteration of the English "station" or "staso" to express the difference between the railway stations, until the traditional "sue" completely disappeared, and everyone unified the English "station" with the Japanese "station". Mishiro's encounter didn't stop there, and he then met Mr. Hirota, a professor of literature. Sanshiro was full of imagination about the future, thinking that Japan had experienced victory in the Russo-Japanese War and would inevitably develop in the future, but when he met Mr. Hirota, a university professor on the train, he did not think so, and silently said: "(Japan) will perish." Apparently, Natsume Soseki, who had been a teacher, substituted himself for Mr. Hirota and used his mouth to satirize that era.
History of Japanese Stations, by Katsumasa Harada, translated by Ye Xiaoyao, Social Sciences Literature Press, January 2022.
But how does this scenario hold? Still relying on the particularity of the railway, whether it is a station or a train, everyone must gather in a specific environment at a specific time and spend a boring waiting time. A student who has not yet entered the door and a professor with a peculiar personality is difficult to convince in other circumstances, but it is normal to put it on a railway station or train.
This is true even for government leaders. On October 16, 1905, japanese Foreign Minister Shotaro Komura returned to Tokyo after signing the Russo-Japanese War Peace Treaty, Japanese public opinion believed that he had not been able to win war reparations, a large number of people were emotional, blocked at Tokyo Shinbashi Station, raised the flag and scolded, until the two Japanese elders came forward to escort, Komura Shotaro was able to leave the station without danger. It should be said that the square in front of the station is a natural place for people to gather, and they know that no matter what rich merchants and high-ranking officials have to go to the station, then the station has become an important place for them to express their emotions and opinions.
Moreover, the book also highlights that in Japan's modern urban development, the "public space" part has been deliberately ignored. There is no civic square, no assembly space, and the Japanese can only use the station as a public space of some kind.
If Shotaro Komura was only frightened in public space, then the next Japanese prime minister was killed directly in public space. On November 4, 1922, as soon as Japanese Prime Minister Kei Hara stepped into the gates of Tokyo Station, a railway worker stabbed him to death with a knife; in November 1930, Japanese Prime Minister Hamaguchi Yuyuki walked up to the platform of Tokyo Station and was shot by a right-wing group member. Looking at the two incidents, an ordinary social worker was able to effortlessly contact government leaders, and even directly put on a knife and gun, so that more public events broke out in this public space.
This is also more in line with the Japanese literal translation of the title of the book: "The Social History of the Station". It is said that it is about the station, but in fact it is telling the various people in the station, telling the stories of what happened in the station, telling the society in which these stories are intertwined.
Separation of passengers and goods: Passengers are always different from cargo
The so-called separation of passengers and goods, as the name suggests, is that each station only receives passengers (passenger terminals) or goods (freight stations), and establishes two different sets of transportation systems to improve the efficiency of passenger and cargo transportation.
If the size of the rail network and the scale of transportation are not large enough, then it is not worth it to have a separate passenger or freight station. As this book says, in the early days of Japan's railway construction, most railway stations were mixed with passengers and goods. However, in the 20th century, there were more and more passengers and goods, and according to the data in this book, Osaka Station increased from 1,400 people per day in 1898 to 50,000 people per day in 1920, and to 100,000 people in 1935. In this way, the efficiency of railway transportation needs to be improved, and the birth of mass media has also made Japanese public opinion pay more attention to the comfort of railway rides, so the separation of passengers and goods is an indispensable step.
Stills from the Japanese movie Station.
More importantly, the demand of passengers and goods on the station and the impact on the station are completely different. Since ancient times, the places that can gather people are naturally commercial centers, such as temple gates in ancient times, after modern times is a railway station, the complicated passenger flow can become a rich cash flow as long as it is slightly adjusted, which naturally requires the station to have a more convenient and more humane service consideration, and the land price of the passenger station will also increase. However, the increase in land prices is definitely bad news for cargo transportation, after all, freight is to reduce costs as much as possible, so the freight station does not need how humanized service experience, but it is more inclined to build in no-man's land, after all, the more remote, the lower the land price.
On the issue of separation of passengers and goods, Japan and the United States can be said to have gone to two extremes. Japanese railways are mainly passenger transport, and freight is sent to the sea; American railways are mainly freight, and passenger transport is transferred to the road from the beginning. For Americans, only by driving a small car on a boundless highway can they get the freedom to choose their itinerary and time; for the Japanese, only by taking a tram and watching the scenery along the way can they get the freedom to go everywhere. In the eyes of the Japanese, the Americans are too casual and disobedient; in the eyes of the Americans, the Japanese are too rigid and conformist; but if the Japanese stations are compared to the American highways and the American cars to the Japanese cars, perhaps many contradictions about the "national nature" will be solved.
As this book argues, Japan's large cities implemented the separation of passengers and goods in the early 20th century. In 1918, Osaka Station was renovated to separate the freight business, which became the Umeda Freight Station; around 1930, the freight business of Nagoya Station was also separated, forming the later Sasaki Station. However, the most important building for the separation of passengers and goods in Japan is Tokyo Station (bus terminal, completed in 1914) that is not much covered by this book.
Before the 20th century, the main station in Tokyo to the outside world was Shimbashi Station, established in 1872, which is about two kilometers from the center of Tokyo and is the starting and ending station of the railway to Yokohama. For the Japanese at the beginning of the Meiji Restoration, the main purpose of leaving Tokyo by train was to go to the port of Yokohama and then take a ship overseas, and since it was a long way out, it was also possible to walk two kilometers by rickshaw.
But the problem is that the Marunouchi area in downtown Tokyo is developing faster and faster, and the original Shimbashi Station is difficult to satisfy. In 1890, a large amount of land in the Marunouchi area was sold to the Mitsubishi chaebol for 1.5 million yen, and the Mitsubishi chaebol was keen on vassalage, so he invited the British architect Josiah Conder to build a large number of red brick houses along the street between the current Tokyo Station and Yurakucho Station, lined up one after another, like the City of London, so it was also known as "One Ding London". Marunouchi's streetscape is a new one, the purpose of the new generation of white-collar workers to take the train is not to go far away, but to go to work every day, naturally feel that going to Shimbashi Station is a bit far away by car, have changed to the streetcar, and Shimbashi Station is also as the book says, "there is a danger of disconnection from the city activity center." To alleviate this problem, the Japanese government decided to rebuild a passenger terminal in the Marunouchi area, which is the origin of the modern Tokyo Station.
Nimbashi Station on the JR Line in Japan, opened to traffic in 1872. Image source: blog.goo.ne.jp
Since it is called "Tokyo" Station, this station represents Japan's national image at home and abroad in a sense, and the design scheme has been adjusted several times. Initially, the Japanese government hired the German designer Franz Baltzer, who was passionate about traditional Japanese culture, and although the main part of the station was built with red bricks, the station roof was in the traditional Japanese style of cities and temples. The design made the Japanese feel like it was different, and people at the time sarcastically said that this scheme was as awkward as "a red-haired Japanese bun".
After the discussion, the Japanese government decided to invite Kingo Tatsuno, a Japanese student of "One Ding London" designer Condel, to recreate an elegant-looking British red brick house station. In December 1914, Tokyo Station was officially opened to traffic, and this red brick station has been through fire and bombing for a hundred years, and has continued to this day. You may be surprised to visit Tokyo Station today: the Marunouchi area is already lined with high-rise buildings, but this old-fashioned station built in the early 20th century still emits a kerosene lamp," always showing the development of Tokyo as a modern metropolis, and also making people feel what is called "classical is fashionable".
From the perspective of railway professionalism, the separation of passengers and goods may only be a means to improve efficiency and revenue, but from the conceptual level, the separation of passengers and goods has a deeper meaning. Passengers are active travel, goods are passive transport, people can not be transported as goods. Perhaps people and goods must walk through the same railway line, but at the beginning and end of the route, people should get a different travel experience than goods.
Considering the specific national conditions, Japan's land is narrow and long, there are many mountains, and there is very little land that can be built for railways, so of course the precious railway capacity must be left to passengers. At the same time, Japan is facing the sea on all sides, and the cost of sea freight is much lower than that of land freight. Under the promotion of the two conditions, after more than 150 years of development, Japan's railways have completely formed a pattern of "passengers, main and cargo", and the railway freight stations and cargo distribution centers in Japan's major cities have been increasingly replaced by modern skyscrapers to form a new urban landscape.
A station that hovers between profit and public space
Nowadays, stations have become a must for citizens to live. Not only do you have to get to the station to get to work, but you have to go to the department store buildings where you have to eat and shop, and even various cultural exhibitions are held in art galleries built near the station. If you don't know how to pass the time, it's always right to go to the station anyway.
But in this way, the railway station encounters a contradiction: the station land belongs to the enterprise, then the enterprise of course has the right to pursue profits; but the railway station has become in fact the "public space" of the citizens, an integral part of urban life, anyone can enter and exit at will, free to use the station facilities. So should rail stations pursue profitability, or should they pursue public services?
Of course, there is a simple answer here, that is, the station must pursue both profitability and public service. But this "both want and want" answer obviously can not solve many practical problems: how should the rise and fall of railway ticket prices be determined? Should the modernization of railway station facilities be borne by enterprises or the government? Should the square in front of the station allow national gatherings? Should large-scale commercial development of stations be restricted to ensure that small and medium-sized businesses away from stations can make ends meet? Should rail stations in remote locations that are no longer profitable stop operating? In Japanese society, the above issues are routinely discussed almost every year.
The author, Katsumasa Harada, also does not give an arbitrary answer to these questions, but the book reveals only a few words that his father was a railway worker, and he himself experienced the post-war war as a teenager, and after adulthood, he lived in the academic circles where left-wing ideas flourished after World War II. In the 1960s, at the invitation of Japan's National Railways, he compiled the "Centennial History of Japan's National Railways", which made a detailed review of the development of railways in Japan in the past century since the Meiji Restoration. These experiences, combined with the book's subtitle" "Modern Railways as Public Spaces," make it clear that the author supports stations with at least the attributes of public service.
However, in 1987, when the book was published, Japan's railways ushered in the most important reform in history: the privatization of state-owned railways. The Japan National Railway Company, which was originally unified, was split into 7 private companies overnight, and the government undertook more than two-thirds of the debt of the national railway, pushing 7 companies to embark on the road of independent operation and self-financing. The reform was a good thing for the railway industry, but in order to make seven companies profitable, Japan abolished 79 railway lines with a total length of more than 3,100 kilometers in the 1980s, and all stations along the way were shut down and turned. If the station is the "public space" of the modern Japanese, then with the end of the era of railway nationalization, the private sector is naturally not obliged to maintain the loss-making "public space". Choosing to publish this history of the station in 1987, the author must also hope to evoke the public's collective memory of the "public space" of the station.
The author | the water of Xiao Xi
Editor| Zhu Tianyuan
Proofreading | Chen Diyan