History Project 2nd Research Meeting

Date：20.July.2004　17:00-19:30
Place：Hosei Univ. Ichigaya Campus Boissonade Tower 19F Meeting room D

Moji: Modern Port Town on Wild Land--formation of waterfront city retaining medieval and pre-modern features
Satoshi Okamoto

Since the commencement of the modern era, the capabilities of ships had dramatically improved, changing functions of port or ship course, as well as the appearance of port towns. The prosperous port towns in the pre-modern era had declined one after another; however, many modern ports would have their foundation on old historical places since the Middle Age. I will clarified in this report on Moji, how ideas, characteristics and urban systems that had existed before the pre-modern era, were inherited in modern urban construction process; in other words, the spatial and functional continuity of port town.
Moji was an important medieval port town, connecting the capital at the time Kyoto and Dazaifu. The transfer of port functions to Ogura city in the pre-modern era, led to decline of Moji, into a lonely village of agriculture and fishery, dotted by salt fields. However, Moji remained to be a key area of ship transportation linking to the main island of Japan.
The port towns before the pre-modern era, had located near river estuaries. Labyrinthine space composed of houses stretched over the hilly area behind the town, where vertical axis between the port and residential area was important. In the redevelopment process of pre-modern port town, the road had been constructed in parallel with coastline, which became one of the important paths for the city. In this way, the modern port town Moji had been formed in a short period of time.
The continuity back to the era before pre-modern can be observed in the industrial structure of Moji. The current second ferry dock located down below Kouso Hachiman Shirine, is considered to have been a core of this port town before the railway construction.
Also, the location of pleasure quarters shows the spatial characteristics of each period. The pleasure quarter of Shiogama was located in the land after salt field that had been the center of the port town. These places were typically found within canals surrounding salt fields, in medieval port towns. Another pleasure quarter of Baba was located along water conduits flowing between salt field and inner land, which divided in and out of the town as a clear boundary; the location had characterized pre-modern castle towns. The pleasure quarter of Nishiki-cho with its designed architectural independency, was located within the town center and shared the spatial structure of modern pleasure quarters along alleyways, which was called Oka-basho (private brothels). The historical transition as describe above shows the continuity of Moji, between the medieval period and pre-modern era.
The formation of commercial spaces followed pre-modern urban development processes. Port facilities made up the parallel axis with coastline, dividing working area and living district; the structure took on the idea observed in the process of pre-modern castle town formation. The two streets--the ribbon area along the sea, with lined commercial ships and modern architectures like banks, and the street near the mountain, Sakaecho-gintengai shopping mall, which has provided living space for citizens along the inner (mountain) side-form the urban axis arranging the medieval and pre-modern period of Moji side by side.
As described above, clarifying urban construction process of modern port towns from the viewpoint of continuity from the medieval and pre-modern era, will surely be important to consider the relation between waterfronts and cities of the 21st century.

“Modernization of Water City, Bangkok--Adaptation to Modern Urban Space and Water Environment 1890-1930"
Yasunobu Iwaki

Bangkok of Thailand has flourished as a port city of Southeast Asia since the latter half of the 18th century. I clarified the changing process observed in the urban space of water city based originally on waterways, in the course of urban development process of the recent times based on roads, from the viewpoints of relation between existing urban space and water environment.
Bangkok is located in the flat swamp, easily affected by tides, which change the level of waterways every second. Therefore, architectural forms best suited for water environment, i.e., the stilt house and floating house, had been adopted. For daily communication and transportation, ship had been mainly used through waterways. Since the latter half of the 19th century as westerners had started to form their quarter in Bangrak, they had pleaded with the king to construct roads linking the quarter with Rattanakosin and the trade port. Thus, the full-scale road construction, including maintenance work on existing roads had been conducted.
The roads had also been built around the suburban housing area, which was under development at that time. The preparation of those housing sites had been aimed for relieving congestion of the existing city center, dwelling shortage and deterioration of living climate, caused by the increase of population at the end of the 19th century. The establishment of land ownership and increase in asset value, had promoted the development of suburban residential areas by private developers. These development projects were based on the ideas of modern urban planning such as rectilinear road construction, grid configuration of city blocks, planting of roadside trees and completion of water supply, which had been adopted in western countries and the colonies in narrow seas. However, suburban areas were located in the seepy swamp, where measures against daily tides and floods in wet season were more strictly required than in the existing urban areas. As a result, roads had to be constructed by filling waste soil disposed when cutting channels in parallel with the roads.
In Ducit where new royal palace had been constructed from the end of the 19th century to the early part of the 20th century, the similar method--simultaneous construction of waterways and roads--had been adopted for urban development. In addition, channels for drainage symbolized the boundary between royal palace and public spaces. In the palace, ponds were constructed using tidal action of river water of Chao Phraya River, realizing a rich residential space coexisting with nature and water. However, the raised-floor palace had changed to the westernized one, constructed on the filled land by waste soil from gardening.
The urban spaces of Bangrak, differed according to the conditions of waterways in the urban development process: whether waterways in parallel with roads had been built or not. The urban space composed of rectilinear roads, grid city blocks and waterways had attracted wealthy people who desired good residential environment. Thus, residences equipped with drainage system as well as garden with tides were constructed along the waterways. As we have seen, channels had been cut in parallel with road construction even in the process of modern development of suburban areas; this shows a way of living coexisting with water inherited from the city's own history.