Yokohama Nishi Ward

Description

At the end of the WW?, the west exit of Yokohama Station was used as a storage area for gravel and other materials, but I had never been there as a child.
In 1956, an experimental shop, the Takashimaya Store, opened in the empty west exit, together with the Yokohama Station Meihin Street. It is said the move was a great adventure after other department stores turned down the offer to open there. The new, glamorous shopping area attracted a large number of young shoppers.
Three years later, in 1959, the four-floor (partly seven-floor) Takashimaya Yokohama fully opened. The products on display, including fashionable clothes and decorative items, were very attractive.
In 1973, the store had renewal opening again, this time with the now defunct "Rose Fountain" in the square by the escalators at the back of the ground floor. As there were no parks or other places to take a break in the rapidly developing west exit of Yokohama Station, the square was always crowded with people taking a break. The fountain square was the "oasis of the west exit".

Title, picture and writing by Taro Suzuki (Nishi ward Cultural Association)
※This is a sketch and writing published in Yokohama Public Relation Nishi ward edition since June 2013. Please be noted that there’s a possibility that information in the article may be changed.

(Published October in 2021)