REPORT

“An Outline of Urban History in Japan”

Class: Architecture and Cities in Japan A (2010-2011) / Lecturer: Prof. ITOU Takeshi

Name: Bebio AMARO / Dept. of Architecture

The University of Tokyo

In this report, I intend to present a brief summary of the urban history of the district of Shibuya. My

interest in this area comes from the high diversity and density of spatial functions. The entertainment and commercial

areas attached to the main roads create a kind of “wall of noise” (both in terms of sound and vision). But once we go

through this wall, we are faced with silent and dark residential pockets, with confusing road layouts, where it is easy

to get lost. Entertainment venues located in these areas make strong efforts to avoid disturbing the local residents, by

having their employees advise people passing in the street to speak softly. Having read “The Making of Urban Japan”

by Andre Sorensen, I learned of the chaotic process which led to haphazard urban sprawl and poor quality of urban

settings across the country. I was curious to see how this process took place in Shibuya.

Although the area of Shibuya contains remains of pre-historical occupation, for a long time it was merely

a group of scattered agricultural villages, of no significant historical importance. After the city of Edo was born, one

of the villages of Shibuya (中渋谷村) provided access to one of the main roads that led to the main castle in the

Chiyoda area (Images 2 and 3). But for most of the Edo period, this place remained untouched in the fringe of the

city, connected to a daimyo estate by means of a small commoner “machichi” (according to Sorensen’s map of Edo in

1859).

Edo was divided into three main areas, separated by caste: the samurai city, the temple city, and the

commoner city. Because the commoner cities were very dense, in the eighteenth century there is an expansion of

commoner areas towards the outer perimeter of the city, including Shibuya. As the topography is mostly dominated

by valleys (Image 1), the area available for occupation was tight, and therefore the grid pattern (characterized by the

“cho” block, which is written in Japanese as 町) that was typically found in the central commoner areas of Edo

(especially in the “shitamachi” zones) could not be applied here (Image 4).

According to Sorensen, urban governance during the Edo period had been relatively weak. And even

during the Meiji period, the application of building codes had largely failed. For the most part, city planning is

allowed only for certain projects such as waterworks and roads. Besides this, private development was largely free to

build in any way it wished.

This leads to the appearance of railways, which will come to have an essential role in the development of

Japanese cities. The Yamanote line opened in 1885, and the station of Shibuya became an important entry point for

people who lived southwest of Tokyo (Image 5). Gradually, commercial ventures begin to install themselves in the

periphery of the station (especially along the “Dougenzaka” road).

With the growth in population resulting from economic development (8,954 houses with 35,191

inhabitants), the area of Shibuya became a town in 1909. Still, for the most part, despite strong government activity, it

had low control over private projects, and investment in infrastructure was low. Due to lack of sewer drainage

systems, the collection of waste was experiencing difficulties. Farmers from outside Tokyo would regularly collect

night soil to serve as fertilizer, but road congestion (especially in Shinjuku) of waste-collecting cars was a common

sight, and Shibuya was no exception.

As we can see from the Taishou 15 map (Image 6), the area of Shibuya is almost unrecognizable, when

compared to the Edo period map. Although some main arteries such as Dougenzaka and a small portion of the river

still survive (the small river ends next to the station), most of the area has turned into a dense and chaotic cluster of

buildings, connected by tortuous and narrow roads (Images 7 and 8).

There were some attempts to correct urban problems within Tokyo: Land Zoning and Land Readjustment

plans were proposed, but for several reasons, had little effect in controlling the haphazard urban sprawl. In 1950, the

building Standards Law was introduced, along with the Road Location Designation System. These regulations were

even less demanding in terms of establishing good road networks (requiring only a minimum width of 4 meters, and

even this was not always achieved in practice), and land development advanced in small stages, mostly constituted by

private (and unplanned) land development, surrounded by some pockets of planned development.

Only during the period between 1959 and 1964 would Shibuya see some improvement. This was the

period when Tokyo was preparing for the Olympic Games. Since some of the competitions were taking place in

Yoyogi Park (north of Shibuya), there were several improvements in terms of roads (especially in terms of widening

streets and diminishing road congestion), expressways, and rail systems (especially subway and monorail). Another

important development took place on the west side of the station, with the creation of a large bus terminal.

In the meantime, more development plans were introduced, such as the Second National Capital Region

Development Plan (1968), and the New City Planning Law, as a response to fragmented urban sprawl and organized

protests from the civil society (since the level of pollution at that time was so high that it was causing widespread

diseases and deaths). Although strict regulation regarding pollution was passed, for the most part citizen participation

in urban planning was almost inexistent (which was also the case in many other countries). Some wards attempted to

introduce their own zoning plans, created with high public participation, only to be countered by Prime Minister

Nakasone’s plan around 1983, which in practice deregulated the process, encouraging the use of low-residential zones

for high-rise development.

From the late 70’s until the bubble period of the 80’s (a period of approximately 15 years), inflating land

prices led many people to leave the central areas towards the periphery, being replaced by companies and services. In

particular, the most affected area of Shibuya was in the “Udagawacho” area, since most of the increase in companies

and services took place there. If we compare with maps from the previous decade (the 60’s), we can see that several

roads in this area were widened and the space became somewhat less fragmented. It was also during this period that

the district of Shibuya began to obtain its reputation as an entertainment district, frequented by increasing numbers of

young people.

Finally, during the 90’s the ”machizukuri” system was gradually introduced (after the bubble had burst,

leaving the country in a very difficult situation of long-term debt, from which it has not yet fully recovered).

According to Sorensen, at this moment it represents the best opportunity to implement an effective method for citizen

participation in the urban planning process. Although it is still a work in progress, and each local government tends to

approach the process in different ways, in Shibuya’s case it is composed by a series of guidelines established by a

“Machizukuri Council” (itself composed of residents and other representatives from the district).

These guidelines (the most recent one was released in 2010) are mostly related to the establishment of

small projects related to basic urban equipment, such as the creation of parks and small gardens, improvement of bike

parking facilities, making the streets safer against fire or “barrier-free”, among other things. It is hoped that a large

number of integrated small-scale interventions can generate a clear improvement in the urban quality of the district.

In other words, incremental improvement might have more success than top-down large scale planning (due to lack

of space, and the abundant presence of private enterprises in the area, the urban tissue has for the most part become

consolidated: see images 9, 10 and 11).

One of the biggest difficulties relating to machizukuri is the relatively low power of enforcement that

these guidelines have. Depending on the situation, developers may be more or less free to ignore the guidelines

elaborated by the Council. The sanctions against uncooperative developers are rather weak, but in the case of Shibuya,

according to the online publications of the ward’s city hall, the results are encouraging. In order to continue attracting

visitors, and to guarantee the vitality of the district, it is in the best interest of everyone to cooperate in order to

improve the urban quality.

Images

Image 1: Topographic map of the Shibuya Valley, where green represents the valley area and red represents higher

altitudes. In the valley ridge lines there were some small rivers. In the lower middle area part of a river is still visible.

Image Source: “地図遊び＠渋谷”, in the blog “東京地形散歩”, posted in 2006-12-11.

Image 2: Location of Shibuya, just outside the limits of a Map of Tokyo made in 1680. Image Source: Google Earth

and Rumsey Historical Maps.

Image 3: Location of Shibuya, at the limit of a Map of Tokyo created in 1799. Image Source: Google Earth and

Rumsey Historical Maps.

Image 4: Shibuya during the late Edo period (1856). Here, only the central area of Shibuya is represented. Image

Source: “江戸明治東京重ね地図”.

Image 5: Shibuya at the west limit of a Tokyo Map created in 1889. Image Source: “東京市区改正全図”.

Image 6: Central Shibuya area, represented in a Tokyo map created in 1926. The fragmentation of the urban space is

clearly evident here. The Dougenzaka street is located in the left upper area of the image, crossing both the railway

and a large river perpendicularly. The old Edo period river is barely visible, located just next to the central station

(next to “大字渋谷”), and going along the railway line on the right side, towards the south.

Images 7 and 8: Map of Shibuya in 1930: development of companies and services in the west side of Shibuya station

(along Dogenzaka street). Image Source: Daisuke Nishioka et al. (2007).

Images 9 and 10: Map of Shibuya in 2000: development of services and commerce along the west side of Shibuya

station. Image Source: Daisuke Nishioka et al. (2007).

Image 11: Map of Shibuya in 2004. The remains of the old river are visible located east of the station, in the bottom

central area of the image. Image Source: “江戸明治東京重ね地図”.

Bibliography and Internet References

Nishioka Daisuke, et al. “A Study on The Urban Development around the West Gate of Shibuya Station from

Distribution of the Functions of the Commerce and Office buildings (1936-2004) Research on History of Urban and

Architecture about Market Places in Tokyo”, in 工学院大学研究報告, No. 102, April 2007, pp. 63-70, Kougakuin

University, Tokyo.

Sorensen, Andre. “The Making of Urban Japan: cities and planning from Edo to the twenty-first century”, The Nissan

Institute/Routledge Japanese studies series, CPI Antony Rowe, Eastbourne, 2002.

vv.aa. “渋谷駅中心地区まちづくり指針 2010”, Shibuya-Ku City Hall, Tokyo, 2010. Date Viewed: 2010-08-05.

http://www.city.shibuya.tokyo.jp/kurashi/machi/shibuya_shishin.html

vv.aa. “江戸明治東京重ね地図”, ABB Company (エーピーピーカンパニー), Tokyo, 2004.

“東京府豊多摩郡澁谷町平面圖”, produced in 1926 and in possession of the Kokusai Bunka Nihon Center (国際日

本文化研究センター). Date Viewed: 2010-08-05. http://tois.nichibun.ac.jp/chizu/santoshi_1231.html

“東京市区改正全図”, produced in 1889 and in possession of the National Archives of Japan (Digital Archive). Date

Viewed: 2010-08-05.

http://www.digital.archives.go.jp/gallery/view/category/categoryArchives/0300000000/0000000712

“地図遊び＠渋谷”, in the blog “東京地形散歩”, posted in 2006-12-11. Date Viewed: 2011-08-04.

http://blog.goo.ne.jp/mushipan3/e/684a68a. 1300359da71fc8de7e4d6bd52