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The Evolution of Hiyoshi Station and the Pedestrian Overpass

Publish: February 26, 2020

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  • Toshiki Nagashima

    Administration Office Administrative Director of Hiyoshi Media Center and Administrative Director of Media Center for Science and Technology

    Toshiki Nagashima

    Administration Office Administrative Director of Hiyoshi Media Center and Administrative Director of Media Center for Science and Technology
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Inside Hiyoshi Station (1978)
The station was renovated, but the overpass remains (1999)

I attended Hiyoshi Campus in 1978. Even then, Hiyoshi Station was a station with two island platforms and four tracks where express trains stopped, and the latest automatic ticket gates were installed. However, the Yokohama Municipal Subway and the Tokyu Meguro Line did not yet run through it, and Hiyoshi Tokyu Avenue (originally Hiyoshi Tokyu Department Store) did not exist. The station building was not large enough to be called a station building, and the Suruga Bank (now "Suruga Bank") building next to the station was more impressive.

There was something in front of Hiyoshi Station that has since disappeared. It is the pedestrian overpass in front of the station shown in the photo. At that time, the platforms at Hiyoshi Station were at almost the same height as Tsunashima-kaido Road, and there were two ticket gates. One was located by going down the stairs from around the center of the platform, passing through an underground passage, and going up the stairs on the Tsunashima-kaido side (East Exit). Crossing the crosswalk in front of you led to Hiyoshi Campus. The other was at the top of the stairs at the end of the platform toward Yokohama, from where you could go both right (West Exit) and left (East Exit). Around the ticket gates, there were commuter pass sales counters and small shops. After exiting this ticket gate and going left, climbing a few more steps led to this overpass, which connected directly to the campus. There were also stairs leading down to the left before the few steps up, which led to the side of Tsunashima-kaido Road, where you could join passengers who had come through the underground passage and cross Tsunashima-kaido at the crosswalk to the campus side. However, since it was faster to cross the overpass than to wait for the light there, I imagine many ´ºÓêÖ±²¥app students who got off at Hiyoshi Station to attend classes at Hiyoshi Campus used this overpass. Conversely, I remember that when I was with friends on the way home from campus, we would chat while leisurely walking down the gentle slope of the ginkgo tree-lined path, wait for the light instead of crossing the overpass, cross the crosswalk, and enter the station through the ticket gate leading to the underground passage.

This overpass remained for a while after Hiyoshi Station was renovated into its current form, but it was removed in August 2002. Being rather impatient, I find it very regrettable that this overpass, which saved me from having to wait for the traffic light, is gone.

*Affiliations and titles are as of the time this magazine was published.