End of an era: Dismantling of old Harajuku Station building to begin on Monday

Aug 23, 2020 | News On Japan

Aug 23, 2020 (Japan Times) - Work to demolish the original version of Harajuku Station, long a symbol of Tokyo's Harajuku district, a mecca for young people, is set to start Monday, bringing its 96-year history to an end.

Famous for its triangular roof topped by a weathercock, the oldest wooden train station in Tokyo was built in a Western style called half-timbering. It was completed in 1924 mainly for use by visitors to nearby Meiji Shrine, which was built in 1920.

The station, one of 30 on the Yamanote Line run by East Japan Railway Co. (JR East), survived World War II but was replaced by the new Harajuku Station building in March.

“The wooden building with an idyllic exterior was easily accepted by citizens at the time of its completion when the so-called garden city concept that attaches importance to a suburban life and nature was spreading and people were starting to introduce the Western lifestyle,” said Shigeru Onoda, an official at the Railway Technical Research Institute.

According a document compiled by the now-defunct Japanese National Railways, about 10 incendiary bombs hit the former building during an airstrike in April 1945 in the final phase of the war, but the structure escaped destruction because none of the bombs exploded.

The areas around the station were burned to the ground during the war, but managed to recover in the postwar economic boom. The National Stadium in Yoyogi, about a five-minute walk from Harajuku Station, was used as the venue for swimming and other events during the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

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