KUNITACHI STATION (TOKYO)

Red-roofed station symbolizes Kunitachi

Photos by Yomiuri Shimbun Photographer Sei Kohama

By Naoki Hosaka

Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

JR Kunitachi Station's distinctive red triangular roof has become a local landmark — so much so that when newly formed East Japan Railway Co. painted it vivid orange in February 1988, it sparked a storm of protest.

Most of the complaints were that the gaudy color did not suit the city of Kunitachi.

While the color change did not inconvenience station employees or passengers, locals did not like the symbol of their town being modified.

Concerned by the complaints, the JR Chuo Line station surveyed station users on their views. About 80 percent were against the orange color, and three months later the station returned the roof to its original hue.

The station was built in 1926, the last year of the 15-year Taisho era. Hakone Tochi, currently Kokudo Corp., planned to build a new university town in a thickly wooded area of the Musashino plateau of the capital.

The developer built a European-style station building for the then railway ministry. That was the start of Kunitachi Station.

Hitotsubashi University, which moved to the town from the central part of Tokyo during the early Showa era (1926-1989), is often referred to as the heart of the town. The red roof has watched over the townspeople's lives from the Taisho through to the current Heisei era.

A sake shop, Sekiya, was the first store to open in front of the station building. It opened one week before the station started operating.

Sekiya Chairman Eiichi Seki, 91, was 12 years old when the sake shop opened.

"There was nothing around the station at that time, and people felt scary walking around the area at night. The red triangular roof contrasted well against the background of green pine trees at the rear of the station building," he said.

Daigaku-dori (University Street), which is about 44 meters wide, runs due south from the station through the campus of Hitotsubashi University. The four-lane road also has a bicycle lane running in both directions, and spacious walkways between green strips of cherry and ginkgo trees. Many people take strolls down the street, carrying cameras to capture the scenery, regardless of the time of year.

The late writer Hitomi Yamaguchi, who lived in Kunitachi, had fond memories of the station, from which he used to commute to work when he was a salaried worker.

"It is not bad to see the red triangular roof of my Kunitachi Station on the Chuo Line," he wrote.

The modest roof certainly suits Kunitachi, the second-smallest city in Tokyo.