European and American-style Train Stations in Japan (Terrain Ideas)

[Sakuragi Miniatures]

The Osaka Gas building is a rather elegant bit of art moderne. The Shibakawa Building looks a lot like Art Deco meets Pizza Hut.

I still can't believe that Nintendo have been knocking out consoles for that long. The Nintendo '34 eh? Comes preloaded with Super Mario Brothers and the Invasion of Manchuria. 

Nintendo goes back to 1889 when they began as a Kyoto playing card maker. They were, and may still be, the biggest playing card maker in Japan.

[carlos marighela]

Did not know that. Interesting snippet of info. Probably makes them one of the oldest extant game manufacturers in the world. Not quite in the John Jaques league of old but pretty impressive none the less.

[anevilgiraffe]

that hotel appears to be home to the Emperor's Inquisition

[Sakuragi Miniatures]

that hotel appears to be home to the Emperor's Inquisition

Gen. MacArthur stayed there on his honeymoon and again the night he arrived in Japan to begin the occupation.

[Marine0846]

Thanks for all the pictures.
Lots of interesting buildings,
love seeing them.

[fred]

What a great thread - I really wouldn't have thought of this style of buildings in Japan.

My daughter's boyfriend recently visited Liverpool and was surprised that the dockside buildings were very similar to Shanghai.

And I have visited Hà N?i and was surprised at how Parisian many of the buildings are.

The power of colonial influence!

[2010sunburst]

Bit late to the party here, but those carriages look like the original Tallylyn railway narrow gauge coaches made by Brown Marshall, and the loco looks quite like Dolgoch, one of their original locos made by Fletcher Jennings.  All date from 1866 and are still in service I think.

[Sakuragi Miniatures]

What a great thread - I really wouldn't have thought of this style of buildings in Japan.

My daughter's boyfriend recently visited Liverpool and was surprised that the dockside buildings were very similar to Shanghai.

And I have visited Hà N?i and was surprised at how Parisian many of the buildings are.

The power of colonial influence!

The change in setting is what makes that kind of architecture more beautiful, that and lack of Parisians in Vietnam. I'm kidding about the Parisians. Unless you're British. Then you know how I really feel about Paris.

Japan's modernization didn't occur organically like it did in the West, so they hired foreign experts and bought the latest technology and jumped from 1603 to 1900 in about three decades. That's why there's so much foreign influence in their architecture. What's less obvious a lot of time is that the architect may be foreign or foreign-trained but the craftsmen were still Japanese and often had to use their traditional methods to recreate a foreign idea.

[2010sunburst]

I visited Japan a few years ago, and was struck by the railway staff uniforms.  They looked very Edwardian, right down to the job titles on the breast pockets written in English.  Seemed incongruous at the time but makes sense in light of your comments about the rapid rate of modernisation.  Probably sourced from the UK, then kept as tradition. 

[carlos marighela]

Best to think of it as a cultural exchange. Western inspired railway stations for Japan then decades later the daft trend of pebble gardens in the West.

Of course the subject of Japanese railways can be a fraught subject. There was a vicar in our diocese for whom it was a very fraught subject. He never forgave the Japanese for making him build them for three years of his life. On the other hand, there was a young Japanese vicar (Japanese Anglicans, yes it's an actual thing) in the same diocese. A delightful chap, he expressed the view that the Japanese sense of humour was closest to the English one.

[ced1106]

If that ancient Shak?ki-dog? figurine you won on eBay turned out to be a fake, Japanese train stations still have you covered.  Just make sure you have the right colored LEDs. 

"Standing a little less than 58 feet (17 meters) tall, the station's replica dog? is locally nicknamed Shako-chan. Its LED eyes blink every time a train arrives at the station, humorously dubbed the Welcome Beams. The lights were renovated in 2020 and they now contain seven colors and four patterns."

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/kizukuri-station

[Triarii]

For some reason I'm thinking the final scenes of the original Ghostbusters film. Or maybe a dose of radiation and Shako chan lives, Godzilla style.

[Sakuragi Miniatures]

If that ancient Shak?ki-dog? figurine you won on eBay turned out to be a fake, Japanese train stations still have you covered.  Just make sure you have the right colored LEDs. 

"Standing a little less than 58 feet (17 meters) tall, the station's replica dog? is locally nicknamed Shako-chan. Its LED eyes blink every time a train arrives at the station, humorously dubbed the Welcome Beams. The lights were renovated in 2020 and they now contain seven colors and four patterns."

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/kizukuri-station

I have a miniature version of the clay figure that's based on, its such a peculiar thing.

[Sakuragi Miniatures]

Best to think of it as a cultural exchange. Western inspired railway stations for Japan then decades later the daft trend of pebble gardens in the West.

Of course the subject of Japanese railways can be a fraught subject. There was a vicar in our diocese for whom it was a very fraught subject. He never forgave the Japanese for making him build them for three years of his life. On the other hand, there was a young Japanese vicar (Japanese Anglicans, yes it's an actual thing) in the same diocese. A delightful chap, he expressed the view that the Japanese sense of humour was closest to the English one.

I've noticed that. Other than miniatures, I do travel and history writing. I've interviewed Japanese and Filipino civilians to tell their personal stories; I had people on one side who were offended I shared the story of  a 15-year old Japanese school girl welder because of how their grandparents were treated by Japan, and then I had people offended I shared a Filipino's childhood memories which included seeing war crimes happen in front of him because they thought that I was trying to disparage Japan by digging up the past. These were the stories of civilian children in wartime and the memories, and scars, they carried with them throughout their lives.

[Sakuragi Miniatures]

I should have put this here initially, as well as in railroads but I have a train station now!

This is a small Meiji-era (1868-1912) Japanese train station I commissioned from Oshiro (https://www.oshiromodels.co.uk/). The design itself is a fifth-class station, the smallest standard station design authorized in 1900 (Meiji 33). These can still be found around the country, especially on Kyushu, with most I've Seen dating from the first decade of the 20th century, though Higashi Sonogi County’s Chiwata Station was built to the pattern in 1928 (Showa 3).






The references I gave for it are Osumi Yokogawa (1903 / Meiji 36) Station and Kareigawa Station (1903 / Meiji 36) in Kirishima, Kagoshima Prefecture. I’m really happy with this and used it in "The Scroll" Pulp Alley scenario in the website's Pulp section.

Osumi Yokogawa Station




Kareigawa Station


(The photos are all mine; taken during a 2019 road trip)