昭和残存 南海電車汐見橋線 木津川駅

木津川は大阪市を流れる淀川水系土佐堀川分流の一級河川です。

が、淀川の源流の一つ京都府の木津川の方が名が通っているようです。

南海電鉄汐見橋線に木津川という駅があります。

この南海電鉄汐見橋線は複線です。

始発から最終発まで平日、土曜日、休日そして通勤通学時間帯でも

一時間に２本の電車が運行されています。

古い駅ですが未だに駅前は舗装されていません。

かって駅前に多くの工場が有ったようですが、工場が撤退した後、更地のままです。

遠くにアベノハルカスが望めます。

【VIEW OSAKA #2 RIVERS】

【VIEW　OSAKA　RIVERS】

＜The preamble＞

Osaka, the Water Capital

　　

The phrase “Water Capital” evokes a metropolis in which rivers and streets intersect, with a picturesque urban landscape of many riverbanks and bridges. From the Middle Ages onward, Osaka developed into one of Japan’s great merchant cities, and the countless canals criss-crossing it made this thriving commerce possible and earned it the nickname Water Capital.

Through the Osaka end of the Osaka-Kobe industrial belt, a linchpin of present-day Japanese industry, flow several rivers: the Kizu, the Shirinashi, the Aji, and the Shin-Yodo. Bridges were built over the downstream sections of these rivers during the period following World War II, when demand for land transport was growing. These bridges had to be colossal, 30 to 50 meters high, so as to allow the passage of large ships plying the river between upstream factories and the sea. These titanic bridges were outfitted with pedestrian walkways, but it is a lot of trouble for people on bicycles or on foot to ascend, cross, and descend them. For this reason there are still eight places where small municipal ferries carry people back and forth across the river to this day.

Today, many of the upstream factories that needed the services of those great sea ships have vanished, replaced by residential developments, large shopping malls, golf driving ranges, or simply enormous vacant lots. Fish and seagulls have returned to rivers that were once clogged with sewage and all manner of things, and people can no longer smell the peculiar smell wafting off the Muddy River.* Riverbanks throughout Osaka have been cleaned up and turned into places for relaxation, and visiting tourists enjoy the reflections of the city lights shimmering in the water.

A leisurely river soothes and softens the rough edges of life. At the same time, fewer and fewer people in Osaka come in close contact with rivers these days. With flood control infrastructure put in place to prevent reoccurrences of the floods, high tides, and tsunamis of the past, embankments have been repeatedly regraded and made higher and higher, and it is harder and harder to get right to the river’s edge.

I hope that these photographs of river scenery, taken from atop bridges and embankments in the course of daily life, will convey at least an echo of the vibrant hubbub that once resonated up and down the rivers and canals of Osaka, the Water Capital.

Tomatsu Shiro

(photographs taken between September 2009 and November 2013)

＜Explanatory text＞

The Rivers of Osaka

In ancient Osaka, the waters of the sea reached as far as the foothills of Mt. Ikoma to the east, and there were numerous coves. These coves were gradually filled with sediment carried downstream by the Yodo River, which has sources in Shiga, Kyoto, and Nara Prefectures, and by the Yamato River, which emerges in Nara Prefecture. Over the centuries this sediment accumulated and became the Osaka Plain of today. Meanwhile, the marine current flowing from the Akashi Strait into Osaka Bay created many shoals, sandbanks, and delta islands along the coast, where people settled in villages and traveled around by boat. In 645 AD, Emperor Kotoku moved the capital to Osaka and built Naniwanomiya Palace. In those times, the nickname Water Capital referred to this palace on a high spit of land surrounded by islands and rivers.

In the 16^th century, the warrior-statesman Toyotomi Hideyoshi built Osaka Castle, and ordered the digging of many canals and waterways such as the Kizu River to aid the advancement of the surrounding city. This was because massive amounts of goods could be hauled by boat with vastly less trouble and expense than by people and horses over land. Later, during the Edo Period (1603-1868), many more narrow waterways were dug as a substitute for streets. Along these waterways, small cargo vessels departed and arrived with the falling and rising tides. Commodities from throughout Japan arrived in Osaka by boat, and records from the time state that, “seven-tenths of Japan’s goods are in Osaka, and seven-tenths of Osaka’s goods are aboard boats.” The phrase “Water Capital” came to refer to a city of thriving commerce made possible by countless man-made waterways and canals.

Water-based transport flourished in Osaka from the 17^th century onward, and to ensure its stable continuation, flood control measures had to be implemented in the Yodo and Yamato River basins. During the Edo Period, merchant Kawamura Zuiken oversaw the digging of the Aji River in 1684, and farmer Naka Jinbei devoted great effort to the diversion of the Yamato River to its current route in 1704.

Osaka’s ultimate defense against flooding from torrential rains came in the form of a channel capable of draining floodwaters to Osaka Bay via the Nakatsu River, which branches off from the Yodo River near Kema. The Meiji (1868-1912) government summoned Dutch civil engineer Johannis de Rijke to lead the project, and completed the 16-kilometer, 500- to 700-meter-wide Shin-Yodo (New Yodo) River in 1910.

During Japan’s postwar period of rapid economic growth, many canals and waterways were filled in as roads were constructed and container vessels became the norm for shipping goods. Today, most remain only in the form of place names containing the words “bridge” or “river.”　

(Written by Tomatsu Shiro)　　

Reference

1. History of Nishi Ward I and II, Vol. 2, Nishi Ward History Publication Committee, 1979

　２．History of Osaka Prefecture, Vol. 5, Osaka Prefectural History Editorial Board (ed.), 1985

＜Articles＞

The Mission of View Osaka

Tomatsu Shiro’s photographs in the View Osaka series are not calculated or staged, nor do they make strong appeals to the emotions. Instead, he scans the Osaka cityscape and captures it carefully and objectively. His pictures give the powerful sense of a photographer on a long-term mission. Just what is Tomatsu’s mission?

The series is conceived as a trilogy. The first part, The Dome, is a collection of photographs of Osaka’s low-lying, salt-of-the-earth cityscape with Osaka Dome (present-day Kyocera Dome Osaka) looming in the distance. Now, Tomatsu has published the second part, Rivers.

This part of the series focuses on Osaka as a “Water Capital.” Since ancient times, the city flourished as a nexus of river-based trade, and during the Edo Period (1603-1868) merchants funded the construction of many bridges for use in daily life and commerce. Today, Osaka is a composite city containing commercial, industrial, business, and residential districts. Its structure is largely determined by the rivers running through it, which partition the above-mentioned districts. Rivers form the boundaries between districts, and along rivers one can glimpse the full panoply of urban life.

Osaka is a city of many bridges, said in the past to number 808, as well as snarls of multi-leveled expressways and railroads over the rivers. These rivers are crossed by ferries and plied by sightseeing boats, and there are roads going under them and sprawling banks where people gather for all manner of purposes. All of these things combine to form the Water Capital we know today.

In the third part of the series, Tomatsu plans to turn the lens on the dwellings of Osaka’s common people. This promises to provide a fascinating window into the everyday lifestyles of the city’s residents.

When complete, Tomatsu Shiro’s trilogy of photo books will serve as a multifaceted record of Osaka at a particular juncture in its history. The View Osaka series will give the people of the future a picture of Osaka in the early 21^st century. I hope that this endeavor will be seen by as many people as possible, and serve as a precious document of present-day Osaka for posterity.

Tokunaga Yoshie

Artist / Manager, Tokunaga Institute of Photo & Art 

＜日本語＞

　「水の都・大阪」

　　

　「水の都」とは、街中を道路と水路が交錯し、川辺や橋からの眺めが好ましい風景を醸し出している水辺都市のことを指す。

　大阪は中世以降、日本を代表する大商業都市に発展した。この下支えをし、「水の都・大阪」と言わしめたのは町中に掘られた数多くの運河であった。

　現代日本の産業を支える阪神工業地帯の大阪市エリアに木津川、尻無川、安治川そして新淀川などがある。第二次世界大戦後、これらの川下に、需要の増えた陸運のために橋が掛けられた。だが、これらの橋は、海から上流の工場への大型船舶の航行を確保するために、川面から３０ｍ～５０ｍを超える巨大橋となった。この巨大橋に歩道も付けられたが、市民の日常生活で自転車・徒歩による渡橋は明らかに負担が大きい。結果として昔ながらの市営渡船が８ヶ所残されている。

　今では、海から巨大橋をくぐる大型船を必要とする川上の工場の幾つかは撤退し、跡地は建売住宅、大型ショッピングモールやゴルフ練習場そして更地のままとなっている。

　かって、生活排水など有りとあらゆる物が流れ込んだ川に魚やユリカモメが戻り、『泥の河』(注）から湧き立つ独特な異臭を嗅ぐことは無くなった。そして、街中の川は憩いの場所として整備され、大阪を訪れる観光客が川面から「水の都」の風景を楽しんでいる。

　穏やかな川は日常生活に癒しと潤いを与えてくれる。しかし、現在多くの大阪市民は直接川に関わることが稀な事となった。洪水、高潮そして津波など、過去の大災害を再現させない治水・水害対策で再々嵩上げされ高くなる堤防が、ことさら川との結び付きを難しくしている。

　日々の暮らしの中で、時折橋や堤防の上から眺める大阪の川風景写真から、川や運河が醸し出す微かな「水の都・大阪」の風情を感じてもらえたら嬉しく思います。

東松至朗　　

（撮影期間　２００９年９月～２０１３年１１月）

＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝

「大阪の川」

　古代の大坂（注）は東に位置する生駒の山麓にまで海水が入り込み多くの入り江が有った。この入り江に現在の滋賀県、京都府、奈良県の各地を水源とする淀川と、奈良県を水源とする大和川が上流の土砂を流下させた。そして、悠久の月日を経て、川下に土砂が堆積し大坂平野を形成してきた。一方、明石海峡から大坂湾に押し寄せる潮流の作用により、沿岸部に瀬や洲をつくり、そして多くの三角州島を造った。この海辺の島に人が住み、船で往来するようになり、６４５年孝徳天皇はこの地に遷都して難波宮を置いた。古代の「水の都」は、海や川に囲まれた「難波宮」を指す愛称であった。

　１６世紀、豊臣秀吉が大坂城を築城し、大坂の発展に木津川をはじめ数多くの運河・掘割を開鑿（かいさく）した。これは人馬の力による陸上輸送と比較にならない廉価で大量輸送できる船による水運が重要視された事による。

　江戸時代に入っても、大坂は町中に小路を造るが如く掘割が造られた。掘割には潮の干満によって、荷船の出帆あり着船があった。日本国中の物貨が船で大坂に運ばれ「日本の貨の7分は大坂にあり、大坂の貨の7分は船の中にある」と記された。「水の都」は数多く造られた掘割と水運の発展による大坂の繁栄を示す呼称になった。

　大坂の水運が発展した１７世紀以降、継続安定した船輸送を確保するには淀川水系、大和川水系の治水対策が必須であった。江戸時代、１６８４年河村瑞賢（町人）による安治川の開鑿や、１７０４年中甚兵衛（百姓）の尽力で大和川を現在の位置に付け替える工事が行われた。

　大阪の究極の大雨洪水対策は、淀川流域毛馬の辺りから分枝する中津川を利用して、洪水を起こす川水を一気に大阪湾に流す放水路を開鑿することであった。明治政府はオランダ人土木技師ヨハニス・デ・レーケを招聘し、１９１０年（明治４３年）川幅５００～７５０ｍで長さ約１６ｋｍ．の新淀川を完成させた。

　

現在の大阪は、高度経済成長期の道路整備やコンテナ船の普及等で多くの運河・堀川は埋め立てられている。そして、橋や堀川は地名に遺すのみとなった。

　　　　　　　　　江戸時代（１６００年代）の大坂平野概略図

図中の青色は現在の大和川・新淀川の位置 を示す。大阪湾と記されている

　　　海の殆どは現在陸地になっている。

（記：東松至朗）　　　

【参照】

　①西区史Ⅰ・Ⅱ　　西区史刊行委員会著　　第二巻　１９７９年

　②大阪府史　大阪府史編集室/編集　　第五巻　１９８５年

　　

注）大阪は古来「大坂」と記されたが、明治以降「大阪」と記されるようになった。