Intra-urban Navigation in the Tokyo Area in Modern Times

Abstract

It has been thought in previous studies that inland navigation had declined in modern times. The author differs with this idea. That is to say, we can say that the navigation has progressed at least in the field of ko-unso (reception and distribution) in modern cities.The purpose of this article is to clarify the function navigation played in urban transportation, in parallel with the progress of other forms of transport and modern industries. The research field for this article is Tokyo, which was one of the most developed cities in modern Japan.Intra-urban navigation in the Tokyo area evolved chiefly as traffic by barges along the Sumida River, Tokyo Port and canals which were built early in the Edo Period, e. g. Onagi River, Kanda River, Nihonbashi River, etc.Intra-urban navigation has several characteristics: namely, transshipment, reception and distribution. Taking this into consideration, the author classifies intra-urban navigation into four types for investigation. They are:1. Transportation connected with marine transportation: Most of the ocean-going ships could not come into direct contact with the shore before World War II. Therefore, when freight from ocean-going ships came into and out of the city, barge transportation was indispensable. This type was the main stream of intra-urban navigation ever since Edo Period.2. Transportation connected with railway transportation: This type of navigation arose in modern times. Stations dealing with freight opened near the riverfront, where freight carried from the railwey was transferred to barges.The quantity of freight carried by this type of navigation was about 45% of the total amount which was dealt with at eight stations in Tokyo City.3. Transportation linked straight to the hinterland transshipment: The ships of this type came into direct contact with the shore. There were two categories: inland navigation originating from Tokyo through the Naka River, Ara River, Tone River, etc., and transportation by steam and sail boats around Tokyo Bay. In the Edo Period, transport items were crops, sea products, soy, etc., but these changed gradually to industrial items in modern times.4. Reciprocal tranport within the city, among each area: This type increased with the expansion of the urban area. It was intra-urban transport between factories or storehouses built in the areas which had many canals, e. g. Fukagawa-ku, Honjo-ku. It seems that the freight volume was twice as much as the total coming into and out of the city.Judging from the above, intra-urban navigation played a great part in transport of freight in the city.The transported items of intra-urban navigation in modern times were rice, wood, coal, gravel, chemical manure, steel, etc., Above all, a large amount of coal as fuel for industry was transported during modern times, particularly from the Taisho Era to early Showa. Intra-urban navigational tranport played an important role in the location of factories as well as in the establishment of land-use zoning in city planning.