Now and Then 1

A postcard from the former Yokohama Station (now Sakuragicho Station). The view near Oe-bashi Bridge: End 19th century. Compare it with the picture I took on at the same bridge, same place:

"Yokohama Station (Today's Sakuragicho Station) was built in 1871.

In 1887 a park was built in the plaza before the station. Water danced in a central fountain. Designed by Henry Spencer Palmer, it commemorated the completion of Japan’s first modern water supply, also a contribution of Palmer’s.

Noge below the hill was an inlet, and villagers were fishing folk. But the government needed a railbed for the train that would join Yokohama and Edo. The inlet was reclaimed, although a strip of water was left as a canal, the Sakuragawa, and the Ookagawa was left unvexed in its course to the bay."
(Burritt Sabin, 'A Historical Guide to Yokohama', ed. Yurindo, Yokohama, 2002, p. 123)