Riding Japan's First Railway 150 Years Later

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:00]On October 14th, 1872, the Japanese Emperor Magi and members of the Japanese government piled onto a small imperial train. Just two decades earlier, Japan was still under Sakoku, its policy of isolation, which kept the country closed to the outside world. But on this October day, Emperor Magi would be joined by ambassadors from throughout Europe for what would be the first train journey in the history of Japan. This small train carried its passengers between Tokyo, which had only become Japan's capital four years prior, to Yokohama, a small fishing village turned into a major port to serve the capital region. In the over 150 years since that day, Tokyo and the rest of Japan have changed quite a lot. This small train line would lay the foundation for Tokyo to become the passenger rail capital of the world, boasting well over 1,000 total stations in the greater Tokyo area. With this massive period of change, you might expect that this original rail line would be lost to the ages. But you'd be mistaken because if you know where to look, you can still find the remnants of that cool October day 150 years ago. So join me as we uncover the history of the Caheen line, Japan's first ever train line.

[00:01:12]Before we start our journey, just a quick reminder that if you go on to enjoy this video or find yourself coming back to my videos to consider subscribing. Around 3/4 of my viewers aren't subscribed. And I'd like to hit 10,000 subscribers by the end of the year with a special video planned if I do. Or if you want to support me directly, consider becoming a member. Your help can help me continue making YouTube content for many more years to come. Anyway, let's head to our first stop. Let's start from where that original train journey started.

[00:01:43]Shimbashi station. However, the Shimbashi station of today is not the original Shimbashi station. The Shimbashi station of today is the seventh busiest train station in Tokyo and one of the busiest in the whole world. It serves two subway lines from Tokyo's two different subway companies.

[00:02:02]Four lines from Japan's largest rail company JR East. the Toisti Yori Cam, which takes people to Tokyo's pleasure capital, Oda, and will even be a stop on the Haneda airport access line once the line opens in the early 2030s. But again, this is not the original Shinbashi station. This is sandwiched in between tower blocks just a few hundred meters to the east of the modern Shimbashi station is the old Shimbashi station. This station served passengers until 1914 when Tokyo station opened and Shimbashi lost its spot as the main terminal for rail traffic in the capital. At that time, the old Shimbashi station was renamed to Shield Dome, becoming a freight terminal for Japan National Railways. The Shield Dome freight terminal would operate until 1986 before being closed. As the original station building was destroyed in the Great KTO earthquake of 1923, the European station building of today is a recreation. But despite being a recreation, the building still holds a lot of history. Inside the building, there's a small museum on the history of the old Shimbashi station. And around the back of the building, there's a recreation of the original station's platform, as well as this, a 3 m long section of rail built next to where the original platform stood. There's also the 0 km mark, a small obelisk showing where the first rail stake was driven in and all surveying done for the rails would be based upon. The museum is fairly small, but if you're in the area, I highly recommend stopping by to see such an important place in Japan's modern history. We'll have to leave the original Shimbashi station behind, though, to continue on our journey south towards Yokohama. So, we'll head over to the current Shimbashi station to make that happen. Even though this isn't the original Shimbashi station, the modern Shimbashi still honors its namesake very well. To the station's west is SL Square. SL meaning steam locomotive. The locomotive on display isn't from the 1870s, but rather the 1940s, but next to it, there's an information board about the first railway. Also on this side is the original brick facade of Shimashi station built in the Maji period, as well as these cool steam train inspired station signs. Over on the east side towards the original Shimbashi station, you can find a driving wheel from another Showa era steam train, as well as a monument to the memorial song of railways. The ods to history don't even stop once we enter the ticket gates.

[00:04:24]Above the stairs heading down towards the Yokosuka line platform, there's a beautiful stained glass window ordained with peacocks, steam trains, and the original Shimbashi station. It's something you can easily miss if you're just transferring through here. From Shimbashi station, we'll pick up the train heading south, quickly coming to our first stop on the trip, Tamachi Station. Tamachi isn't too important to the story of the Caheen line, as the station opened in 1909, 37 years after the line originally opened. But it's here at Tamachi that we can find the start of something crucial to telling the Caheen line story. Roughly at the spot where Tamachi station sits today was the start of the Takanawa embankment. East Tokyo's waterfront is largely artificial. So while the area to the east of Tamachi is now full of artificial islands, this whole area would have been Tokyo Bay.

[00:05:12]150 years ago. While the engineers responsible for the Caheen line wanted to construct the rails along the coast, the area was under the control of the Japanese Navy, who were unwilling to give up the land. So, the Takanawa embankment was their solution. The embankment was designed in part by Britain Edmund Morell, the man widely considered to be the father of Japanese railways. The stone embankment was 2.7 km long, running from roughly where Tamachi station is across Tokyo Bay and finishing just north to the site of the old Shinagawa station. The Takanawa embankment was considered a great success for Japan, being their first large-scale railway construction project. However, some people, namely European engineers, were not too happy with the embankment. One called it a total disaster, while another said it is a model of what never should be done.

[00:06:04]However, with the construction of the Tokaido line in the early 20th century, the Takanawa embankment would fall out of use. Furthermore, due to land reclamation projects in this area, the embankment would be buried under decades of urban developments. It seemed for over a century that the Takanawa embankment would be lost to time. That was until 2019.

[00:06:26]Thus, we come to our next stop, Tokyo's newest train station, Takanawa Gateway.

[00:06:31]Construction on this station in the area around the station known as Takanawa Gateway City began in 2017. In 2019, a 1.3 km long section of the Takanawa embankment was uncovered. Everything from the rails and the track bed to the stone structure of the embankment itself. Following the discovery, over 20 different organizations requested J.R.

[00:06:53]East, the creators of Takanawa Gateway City, to preserve the embankment. While JR was unable to maintain the entire section of the embankment, they would still preserve around 120 meters of it.

[00:07:05]With this 120 m section being designated as a historical site by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology. Today, this history is honored heavily at Takanawa Gateway. To the west of the Link Pillar 1 Towers, you can find the Takawa Link Line. This area is packed with the history about the Takawa embankment. First, you can find this section of tracks running the length of the link line, showing where the original train line ran.

[00:07:33]Furthermore, several stone blocks from the original embankment were incorporated into the scenery. They even have an augmented reality section showing the Caheen line, which uh kind of worked.

[00:07:46]But so far, we've only seen one of the Caheen Lines original stations. So, we'll keep heading south to find our next stop, Shinagawa. In Shinagawa, you join me on a bridge. But not just any bridge. The first bridge. Specifically, this is the Yatsuyama Bashi, the first bridge over a railway in Japan. It also got blown the up by Godzilla in the first Godzilla movie. The current Yatsuyama Bridge is the fourth iteration of the Yatsuyama, being rebuilt most recently in 1985.

[00:08:18]But on the south side, close to the KQ line crossing, you can find an old support for the original Yatsuyama bridge. You might be wondering why I'm focusing so much on this bridge. Well, much like Shimbashi station earlier, the Shinagawa station that exists today is not the original Shinagawa station. The modern-day Shinagawa station was opened in 1924 as a KQ line station called Takanawa before JR's predecessor JNR moved there in 1933 and renamed Takanawa station to Shinagawa station. But this site just to the south of the Yatsyama Bridge is where the original Shinagawa station once stood. You can see it on maps of the old Takanawa embankment located at the embankment's southern end just to the north of the old Tokaido road. Interestingly though, while Shimbashi was the official start of the Kaheen line once the line officially opened in October of 1872, Shinagawa station was the provisional starting point for the line. Trains started test runs between here at Shinagawa and Yokohama with two intermediate stops in the middle. Stations that we'll be covering later in June of 1872, 4 months before the line would officially open. Shinagawa station itself doesn't have as much as Shimbashi when it comes to honoring its legacy as one of Japan's oldest train stations.

[00:09:32]Inside the modern station, you can find a small monument to the Yamanote line as Shinagawa is the kilometer zero point for Tokyo Central Loop Line.

[00:09:41]Furthermore, on platform 1, there's a small plaque honoring the opening date of Shinagawa station as well as Godzilla's destruction of the Yatsuyamabashi.

[00:09:49]Even if there isn't a lot here though, it's nice to see that there's at least one small monument, and that's something that can't be said for the next two original train stations. Shinagawa was the final stop in Tokyo. From here, the Caheen line continued south through modern-day Shinagawa and Otto Wards before crossing the Tama River and heading into Kanagawa Prefecture.

[00:10:09]Shortly after crossing into Kanagawa, we arrive at the next of the original train stations, Kawasaki Station, to find nothing. Of course, there's not nothing here. Kawasaki is a city of 1.5 million people with Kawasaki station serving nearly 200,000 people on a given day.

[00:10:30]But for the purpose of this video, there's nothing here that would say Kawasaki was one of the first train stations in Japan. The station was one of the two intermediate stops between Shinagawa and Yokohama, unofficially opening in June and officially opening in October of 1872.

[00:10:46]But you wouldn't know that. There's no steam trains, no ods to railroad construction, just the world's smallest escalator in a mall nearby.

[00:11:02]Oh yes. The same thing can be said for the next stop on the Caheen line, Sudumi station. Today, Sudumi station is very important to JRE East freight traffic, linking to the Mousashino South line and various lines on Kawasaki and Yokohama's waterfronts. Plus, the walkways over the rails provide some great views of the trains passing by. But once again, there's nothing here to honor Tsudumi's origins. Now, technically, Tudumi was not a stop on the first day of the Caheen lines opening, the day when the emperor traveled between Tokyo and Yokohama. Instead, it opened the following day when passenger service on the Caheen line began. But still, to have nothing that shows Sudumi's history is sad. For both Kawasaki and Sudumi, even a small information board outside the station with a picture of the original station or a sign like one of the ones at Shimbashi would be enough.

[00:11:55]But instead, there's nothing. Zero.

[00:11:58]Zilch. Nada. Even 150 years later, as Japan has modernized and Tokyo has turned into a massive urban metropolis, we've seen the great lengths that JR East and the other organizations involved in telling the Caheen Lines history have gone to keep the story of this original train line alive. Having nothing at either of these stations is lazy and a disservice to the importance of the history they hold. However, it could be worse because Kawasaki and Sudumi stations are still standing today. Even as the years have gone by, the cities these stations are in have changed and the stations themselves have been rebuilt and renovated again and again. They still exist.

[00:12:45]That cannot be said for the penultimate station on the original Caheen line.

[00:12:50]When the United States wanted to open a port near the mouth of Tokyo Bay, they had a few options. Their first choice was to open a port at Kanagawa, a town along the Tokaido road. However, the late Edeto period government protested as they did not want foreigners entering an important town through which many Japanese travelers passed. Instead, the Edeto government suggested a small fishing village of less than 100 households located on a sandbar across the bay. This area would become christened as the adjacent or horizontal seashore, Yoko Hama. Today, Yokohama is Japan's single largest municipality, a city of over 3.7 million people. The city of Kanagawa, meanwhile, no longer exists. It is instead one of Yokohama's 18 wards. And much like the city, the station that bore its name also no longer exists. So, why then am I at a station called Kanagawa? Well, this is KQ's Kanagawa station, and it's actually the least used KQ station. So, surprise, there's a least used train station video inside this history video. With a little over 4,200 people per day, Kanagawa station does its namesake station, no service. We'll get to why that is in a second, but I will say Kanagawa Station is a fantastic place to watch the JR train speeding past. Kanagawa station was the other intermediate stop between Shinagawa and Yokohama, officially opening in October of 1872. Its location was important as well as the Hungakuji Temple, located a few hundred meters north of the station was the site of the United States first consulate in Japan.

[00:14:30]Then from Kanagawa, trains would turn south, heading over an embankment much like the Takanawa embankment to head towards the terminus at Yokohama. But as the years went on, this Kanagawa station became less and less important. Higashi Kanagawa station, which still exists today, opened in 1908, lessening Kanagawa's users. The final blow came in 1928 when following the Great KTO earthquake, Yokohama Station was relocated to its current location, less than a kilometer from Kanagawa's location. With Yokohama's relocation, the end of Kanagawa Station was sealed with Kanagawa Station closing in the same year after 50 plus years of service. The current day Kanagawa Station opened in May of 1930 as Awokashi Station, being renamed to KQ Kanagawa Station one week later. The last name change came in 1956 as the KQ was removed and the new Kanagawa station was born. But much like the original Kanagawa station, the modern-day one suffers from being just a little too close to Yokohama station. The most northern entrance of Yokohama station is just a little over a 600 meter walk from here, thus the low passenger numbers.

[00:15:41]It's a bit of a shame that one of Japan's original stations was lost to the ages and that none of its history was preserved. But thankfully, as we hop back on the train and head to our final stop, we come to a place where that history has been preserved. While it's no longer Yokohama Station in name, Sakuragicho is the original Yokohama Station, and it does a great job at letting you know that. As you head down the stairs, you can find pictures of Sakurago's history, ranging from the late Maji period to the modern day.

[00:16:12]Furthermore, there's small exhibits on the history of the architecture of Yokohama, as well as this beautiful recreation of a woodblock print showing Maji era Sakuragicho.

[00:16:22]Once you leave the ticket gates, you can find even more history. Outside the south gates, there are small exhibits about the history of Sakuraicho and the Caheen line. The real Pistons, though, is located across the street in the Yokohama Historic Railway Gallery.

[00:16:38]Outside the gallery, there's a small bronze print of Edmund Morell. Inside, you can find more exhibits on the history of the Caheen line and this incredible diarama of what Sakura looked like in the late 19th century. But the best thing is this, a type 110 steam locomotive. The original locomotive that ran on the Caheen line over 150 years ago. The type 110 was built in Britain before being imported to Japan. It exited service in 1924 and was kept at various locations around the Tokyo area.

[00:17:10]It was then moved to this spot in Yokohama in 2020. Behind the locomotive is a period accurate secondass passenger car. to ride the secondass car from Tokyo to Yokohama would cost $1, which when adjusted for inflation and converted into yen would be about 4,200 yen one way. For reference, a one-way trip between Shimbashi and Sakuragicho today costs 530 yen. At this point, we've reached the end of the Caheen line. It's incredible to ride along this original line over 150 years later, just to see how much has changed. I think there is no better way to end this video on the Caheen line than to read the words of those who chose to memorialize it. Over to the west of the historic railway gallery, you can find the monument to the launching of the first railway. It reads, "The far-sighted endeavor of the men who developed this railway typify the spirit of their times. May their tradition continue to inspire future generations."

[00:18:11]While it most certainly isn't perfect, I think if the architects of Japan's first railway saw Japan's railways of today, I think they'd be pretty pleased. Thank you for watching today. Take care of yourselves and goodbye for now.