Meiji era

The Meiji era is recalled during a journey along the Nihonbashi River, where old railway station buildings offer a material glimpse of Japan as it began to industrialize. The brief historical reference also helps frame a conversation about how a place—and a person—can look different when approached from another point of view.

Historical Reference

As the boat traveled up the Nihonbashi River, the old railway station buildings near Manseibashi Bridge reminded Shuhei Matsumiya of the Meiji era and its late-nineteenth-century industrial beginnings. The buildings make that history part of the present landscape: rather than arriving as an abstract date or exposition, the past is encountered through structures still visible along the route.

A Change of Perspective

After passing Hijiribashi Bridge, the travelers entered a channel bordered by grass and trees. The shift in scenery made it possible for Matsumiya to imagine himself outside Tokyo, despite the high-rises nearby. His observation that a thing cannot be understood from only one point of view extends the river journey beyond urban history to the investigation’s broader attention to perspective. The Meiji-era buildings thus sit within a scene where the city’s layers, and the limits of a single viewpoint, become newly apparent.