Full Steam Ahead: Japan’s First Train (and Train Food?)

After two decades of locomotive education and manufacturing, incited by the sakoku-ending Treaty of Kanagawa (1853) and collaborations with Western engineers, Japan’s cardinal rail line debuted on October 14, 1872 (Figure 1.1). This 23.8-kilometer line, now a segment of the modern-day Tokaido Main Line, connected Tokyo to Yokohama, with third-class ticket prices starting at today’s equivalent of $50. (In 2020, Japan’s entire train network spanned over 30,000 kilometers; about 3,000 kilometers were dedicated to high-speed shinkansen [Kazuo 2026: 6].) The grand opening at the Minato ward’s Shimbashi Station brought in the likes of Inoue Masaru (Japan’s first director of railways), foreign dignitaries, and 19-year-old Emperor Meiji, who, along with his state ministers, wrote traditional samurai clothing, “which seemed out of step with a ceremony focused on modernization” (Atsushi 2022; Figure 1.2).

This was a reflective omen of sorts: The long-standing feudal systems of Japan were facing the unavoidable, industrial future that came with breaking isolation and negotiating with the West. A similar comparison can be made with consuming traditional ekiben on state-of-the-art bullet trains—but in that case, could opposites attract? Come the bubble economy of the 1980s, the washoku lifestyle of Japanese gastronomy would live in harmony with the rise of technological advancements. Washoku literally means “Japanese food,” but it has since become popularly associated with the blending seasonal ingredients and traditional presentation methods that are unique to Japan (Cang 2019: 509-510; Cwiertka 2018: 102). More on that later.

With the rise of railway transportation during the Meiji era, other services boomed: Porters, money-exchange operations, newspaper stands, and restaurants were readily available near stations (Noguchi 1994: 320). The early days of train travel were without dining cars, so passengers turned to bentō-carrying peddlers or stalls for sustenance (Figure 1.2). The first ekiben, which comprised of two umeboshi (pickled plum) onigiri wrapped in bamboo leaf, were sold in 1885 at Utsunomiya Station for five sen (ibid; Hani 2003; Figure 1.3). I further explore the origin of ekiben and how both its appearance and cultural impact have expanded over 140 years in this TK-named section.

Over the next few decades, the train network was expanded domestically to connect other major cities with one another (such as the Kobe-Osaka and Kyoto-Otsu lines) and further develop those already constructed (Tokyo and Yokohama). In 1912—the same year the Taishō era began after the death of Emperor Meiji—samurai-turned-Bureau of Railways president Count Gotō Shōjirō proposed a new standard-gauge shinkansen, translating to “new trunk line,” between Tokyo and Fukuoka (Thuong 1982: 27). In my research, this was one of the first recorded mentions of shinkansen development—and the desire to make faster, safer locomotives continued on well through WWII and American occupation. Furthermore, connecting the capital with the port city in closest proximity to Korea and continental Asia would have been pivotal, both for trade and imperialistic goals of the early Shōwa era. Japan had plans to build multiple train networks in Korea and Manchuria after respective invasions. Alas, while some of the line was constructed, it was suspended during WWI and eventually halted all together by the 1929 Depression (ibid). The scope of Japan’s railways by the end of WWI is shown in a circa-1918 antique map produced by Toppan Printing Company (Figure 1.5).

Figure 1.1 Rendering of the Tokyo railway by Mōsai Yoshitora, printed in 1871. Courtesy of National Diet Library, accessed by Museum of Logistics.