There’s some road construction going on up the street from the station; a road-widening project to accommodate the increase in traffic brought on, at least in part, by the popularity of the new AEON Mall. Roads all over town are going under transformation right now, including along the south and west sides of the castle. I’ve never seen anything like it in my modest eight years here. I’m intrigued by the process of change.

But near one end the fresh sidewalk being laid along the block leading to Agata-no-mori Park a vestige of Matsumoto’s past remains.

 

The characters etched in this old stone marker show that this was once the spot where the streetcar that used to run through town would fill up on water – to aid whatever purpose that water served. Always eager to throw myself into another time-consuming and trivial pursuit, I pedaled off in search of more evidence of this mysterious bit of Matsumoto’s story.

Trains to the East & West

Matsumoto Station opened in June 1902, carrying passengers and freight to and from the north and south. In 1921 the Chikuma Rail Company opened the Shima-Shima Line that initially ran west as far as Niimura (past the Kametaya Sake Brewery, which had already been around for 50 years) and soon reached clear out to Shima-Shima Station. Of course, these could hardly be called streetcar trains as they ran into and across the countryside.

Matsumoto’s – and Nagano Prefecture’s – first “city trolley” opened in 1924. Also a project of Chikuma Railway, this aptly-named Asama Line stretched for over 5 kilometers, from Matsumoto Station to the opposite terminus in the onsen village of Asama.

The initial stretch of the Asama Line ran straight up Ekimae-dori (now agata-no-mori-dori), which at the time was a narrow thoroughfare lined with one- and two-story wooden buildings. Between the tracks and the edge of the street was space barely enough to accommodate the occasional vehicle.

At the intersection where that stone marker stands among the construction of 2022, the tracks turned left, leading north toward Asama. Along this stretch there were no paved roads and, in some areas, no road at all.

At Yokota Station, where now can be found Yokota Onsen, there were auxiliary tracks that served as a railyard and, evidently, a place for trains to pass as the rest of the Asama Line consisted of a single set of tracks.

At the end of the line stood Asama Station. Backed by a public park, this station and the area surrounding it was the de facto center of Asama Onsen and a lively, bustling place.

But time marched on, and the train that had been a sort of bloodline for the town of Matsumoto and the visitors headed for Asama became a hindrance to the proliferation of the automobile.

In 1964 the ding-ding of the Asama Line trolley car – a sound that had been a part of daily life for forty years – went silent. (“On April 1^st we will be switching to buses. Thank you everyone for the years.”)

The Streets Today

There are precious few remains of that streetcar line. About the only reminders are the car-filled streets of the present – streets that follow the same lines and curves that those tracks once followed.

 

 

 

There are, however, scattered bits of Matsumoto’s past that have survived the widening and paving of the roads. These Buddhist stone markers date from 1793 – 1812.

 

I found no indication as to the age of this hi-no-mi-yagura bell tower, which was how people warned of fire in the past. I’d say it’s been here a while.

 

The park laid out at the end of the tracks in Asama still remains, overlooking the street that curves along the lines of the now-extinct tracks.

 

On some maps around town you may see Agata-no-mori-dori (県の森通り) Street referred to also as Densha-dori (電車通り, or “Train Street”), which is what many people of the time would call it.

 

In front of Matsumoto Station, where the road snakes past the Iida Hotel, there’s a bus stop that just might be about where people once waited for the trolley to Asama.

 

And if you look closely while walking the grounds of Yohashira Shrine you may find a long stone (now broken) with two neatly-placed holes in its surface. These holes, I’ve been told, were cut to hold the tracks of the Asama Line in place.

 

This stone is, perhaps, the only visible physical evidence left of the streetcars that were, for a time, a proud part of Matsumoto.

I wonder if they’ll leave that stone marker there at the corner, where trains used to get their water.