ED75's Random Japanese Trip Photos

[SL-san]

4 hours ago, ED75-775 said:

Meiji-Mura Museum

Attached are two images of gems of the Meiji-Mura.

The main lobby of the Imperial Hotel Tokyo (built in 1922 and designed by Frank Lloyd Wright) which survived the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, was reconstructed at Meji-Mura in 1960.

Sharp Stewart & Co locomotive built in 1874 was still pulling carriages at the museum in 2016 when I visited...I hope it still is😀

Graeme

[ED75-775]

Heading slightly further into the museum grounds, we find the first of the rail exhibits at Meiji-Mura: the tramway. Commencing operation in 1967, the Meiji-Mura tramway features two 3'6" (1067mm) ex-Kyoto City Transportation Bureau trams, N58 (No. 1) and N115 (No. 2), operating over what I'd estimate to be about three kilometres of track. On the day of my visit, N115/No. 2 was in service, seen here at the middle tram stop.

 

 

While at least eight of these narrow-gauge trams have survived into preservation, Meiji-Mura's examples are the only ones still running in Japan. Fun fact for the California-based members of this forum: trams N17 and N19 were sold to the Orange Empire Railway Museum (now the Southern California Railway Museum); SCRM still lists N19 on its fleet roster but there's no mention of N17.

 

Also on site at the time, but not part of the Meiji-Mura collection, was former Sapporo City Transportation Bureau tram 22. This tram began its working life in 1901 in Nagoya, but was later sold to Sapporo in 1907 and ran there until the 1930s. Held for preservation, it was returned to working order in 1960 but last ran in 1977 and was then retired to the Sapporo City Transportation Museum.

Its visit to Meiji-Mura was originally arranged in 2013 as part of the museum's fiftieth anniversary celebrations, in which it was planned to restore it to working order once more and operate it on the museum's tramway. That plan fell through when it was found that certain parts had become seriously deteriorated, resulting in 22 being placed on static display in a shed close to the former Sapporo Telephone Exchange building. The original loan called for 22 to head home in 2020 but that was extended out twice, with the tram finally heading back to Hokkaido in September 2023, just a few months after I saw it.

 

 

Note also the wacky lifeguards fitted to these trams, which are jarringly large but very necessary during the rapid modernization of the Meiji era when people would have been considerably less concerned about being hit by vehicles - until they were!

 

Alastair

[ED75-775]

Apart from the trams, Meiji-Mura does have a few railway exhibits on site, including three steam locomotives. This is the largest and easiest of the trio to find, Bisai Railway No. 1, displayed in front of the former Rokugo River railway bridge section.

 

 

Built by the Brooks Locomotive Works of Dunkirk, New York in 1897, this 4-4-2T locomotive was used on what is now the Meitetsu Bisai Line during its service career. Coincidentally, it would also work alongside one of the museum's other locomotives during this time as well. Retired in 1935, it was sold into industry and worked at a factory in Niigata Prefecture before entering preservation.

 

Brooks products weren't particularly common in Japan with just ninety-one locomotives purchased from that manufacturer between 1896 and its incorporation into ALCo in 1901, mostly one-offs for private railways although the Japanese Government Railways and its predecessors did purchase a few as well. So far as I'm aware, this is the only survivor of those ninety-one. It's too big for the Meiji-Mura railway, and given that it's been stored outside for decades, I wouldn't be prepared to bet that it's in all that good a condition. But it exists, the cab is open to visit, and perhaps that's more than enough for this old-timer.

 

Fun fact for the uninterested: Doing a little research for this photo travelogue, I came across a website featuring both a photo of Bisai No. 1 in its original condition, as well as photos of a few of the company's other Japanese products. Check it out here.

 

Alastair

[ED75-775]

While my trip to Meiji-Mura was ostensibly for the steam trains, there's actually one other reason I ended up going. Graeme has already provided a spoiler as to what that is: it's the lobby of the former Imperial Hotel, designed by the great American architect and Japanese art aficionado, Frank Lloyd Wright.

 

 

Built between 1919 and 1923 in Wright's 'Mayan Revival' style, the hotel was designed to be as earthquake-proof as possible, which it demonstrated - albeit with some small damages - during the Great Kantō Earthquake of 1 September 1923. Unfortunately for the hotel, it was one of those very earthquake-proof features which led to it being condemned. The shallow floating foundation was supposed to spread the building's weight out but instead failed to provide enough support and stop the building from sinking into the alluvial mud present on site. While there was talk of demolition and renewal as early as 1936, it would hang on until 1967.

 

 

Following public outcry over the loss of Wright's iconic building, plans were set in motion to rebuild the hotel's lobby at Meiji-Mura, utilizing the finishing elements from the original structure which itself as a brick and concrete structure would not be able to make the journey. All of the pieces had arrived in Inuyama by March 1968; reconstruction of the exterior formally took place between 1970 and 1976, followed by reconstruction of the interior between 1983 and 1985. It's a wonderfully contemplative space to wander through or maybe have a cup of tea at the tearoom on the second floor.

 

Now, I'm going to have to come clean: I'm not an architect. I am however a fan of architecture, which may have been helped by the fact that my maternal grandfather was a professional architect before he retired in the late 1990s or early 2000s. He very kindly gifted me a few books from his collection some years ago, including his copies of Sir Banister Fletcher's A History of Architecture on the Comparative Method and Nikolaus Pevsner's An Outline of European Architecture, to name just two. Knowing his interest in Wright's work (he's said at least once that Wright is an excellent example of an architect to study), I ended up video-calling him on holiday in Auckland while there, just to show him where I was, which he deeply appreciated.

 

Alastair

Edited 1 hour ago by ED75-775