TENRYU FUTAMATA STATION (TENRYU, SHIZUOKA PREF.)

Town's heyday ingrained in cultural treasure

Photos by Yomiuri Shimbun Photographer Yasuhiro Takami

By Masayuki Murata

Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

It is no surprise Tenryu Futamata Station on the Tenryu Hamanako Rail Road in Shizuoka Prefecture attracts train spotters.

Inside the fan-shaped train shed, numerous wooden pillars that are black with soot crisscross the ceiling and make it easy for visitors to envisage a steam locomotive stored under the ceiling in days past.

The train shed was built in 1940 when the railway company was owned by the government and is the only wooden train shed in the nation still in use. The building, which is made of local wood, is registered as a national tangible cultural treasure.

A turntable once used to change the position of the locomotives lies in front of the shed. It is still in use.

But there are many other interesting aspects of Tenryu Futamata Station that people can see besides the shed and the turntable by purchasing visitor tickets. The wooden station building, which was completed in the same year as the shed, still houses the control room. The water tower for the steam locomotives also reminds visitors of the station's heyday.

The Tenryugawa river is better known than the city of Tenryu. Until the early Showa period (1926-1989) the river carried boats and rafts loaded with felled trees to Tokyo and Osaka, but now carries boats full of people taking a 50-minute cruise along a six-kilometer course.

Tetsuro Kawashima, 85, who shut down his restaurant near the station several years ago, clearly remembers how local lumber was transported from the station. "There used to be a large pile of lumber along the tracks, which was put on the trains to be taken to other cities until about 1965," he said.

Back then, the streets were busy and business was good for Kawashima. Above all, local people had pride in the local lumber industry.

"Houses were made of wood from Tenryu and nowhere else. People of my generation were bloated with such pride," Kawashima said.

However, lumber production has fallen to about one-twentieth of the peak period. Today the streets of Tenryu are quiet even in the daytime. "But that train shed still remains. It's made of wood from Tenryu and looks great," he said.