下北沢
Shimo-Kitazawa
(Lower Northern Stream)

hmmmmmm….
Shimo-Kitazawa is located in Setagaya Ward. Because of its bohemian appeal, it’s popular with artists, musicians, college students and young professionals. It’s not as commercial as the more urbanized centers like Shibuya and Shinjuku, and it has a nice balance of residential and boutique business culture. It’s not the most accessible area, but that’s part of its charm. But don’t let that fool you; the small Shimo-Kitazawa Station is busy as hell. It’s definitely a hot spot.
But actually, there is no official place called Shimo-Kitazawa.
By this I mean, there is no official postal address called Shimo-Kitazawa. There is a train station with this name.
And that’s it.
The area colloquially referred to as Shimo-Kitazawa is composed of two official areas Kitazawa and Daizawa.
It’s interesting to me, because Shimokita (as it’s usually nicknamed) has a momentum that reflects changes we’ve seen in Tōkyō’s history. Readers of JapanThis will remember how we’ve watched Iidamachi fade into oblivion as Iidabashi gained dominance simply because of the presence of a train or bus station. We also saw this with Nijūbashi, Kudanshita, Ebisu, and Omotesandō. There are too many examples of this to list. So if you wondered how these place names transition, there’s a good chance that we’re seeing a transition before our very eyes. A legitimate, modern Shimo-Kitazawa might exist sometime in the very near future.
So What’s the Origin of this Place Name?
We have to look at two important geographical words before we can go any farther.
上流 |
jōryū |
upstream |
下流 |
karyū |
downstream |
It’s said that in this area, there were many 沢 sawa streams (or that there was one particular stream here). Since this area was the northernmost section of the 荏原郡 Ebara-gun Ebara District[i], the stream[ii] was called 北沢 Kitazawa, the Northern Stream[iii].
In old Japanese place names, the upstream area would generally be referred to as 上 kami upper and the downstream area as 下 shimo lower[iv].
Even today there are train stations named 上北沢 Kami-Kitazawa Upper Kitazawa and 下北沢 Shimo-Kitazawa Lower Kitazawa. Other related names are 北沢 Kitazawa, 代沢 Daizawa, 代田 Daita and 新代田 Shin-Daita[v]. By the way, I know a bad ass ramen shop in Shin-Daita.

This one is from the Showa Era.
The platform has no roof so it must have been a bitch in the summertime.
But the platform and tracks must be in the same places as they are now.
Also, you can tell this is after WWII, as the kanji are written left to right.
In the Edo Period, this place was just country. In fact, it wasn’t even part of Edo. It was just part of the Ebara District of Musashi Province. Maps of the time confirm the presence of two small villages by the name of 下北沢村 Shimo-Kitazawa Mura Shimo-Kitazawa Village and 上北沢村 Kami-Kitazawa Mura Kami-Kitazawa Village. When 東京府 Tōkyō-fu Tōkyō City was created, it absorbed the area into the city boundaries. At that time, the villages were officially merged into 北沢村 Kitazawa Mura Kitazawa Village[vi]. This sort of thing happened all over Tōkyō, but the old names often would come back into circulation for bus, trolley, and train station names that needed to be differentiated. This is why the Shimo and Kami names still exist today at all.

The highlighted area is the Ebara District — or at least what was incorporated into Tokyo City.
#17 is Setagaya Village.
You can easily see that it’s at the northernmost point of the county.
Kami-Kitazawa Station was built in 1913. Shimo-Kitazawa Station was built in 1928. The names seemed destined for mediocrity until 1991 when the area became a hub for performing arts (theater in particular) and slowly the area gained momentum as quirky boutiques and shops and restaurants came to be established there. By the mid-2000’s the area had a reputation for its bohemian/Shōwa chic. I hear there are plans to re-develop the area that would change the area dramatically, but this seems to be on hold as the residents of the area are opposed to making drastic changes to the neighborhood.
I’ll admit it’s not my favorite place in Tōkyō, but every time I’ve gone, I’ve had fun. Part of its cool factor comes from the fact that it’s not so easy to get to. It’s on the Keiō and Odakyū lines, which aren’t the most widespread rail companies in the Tōkyō Metropolis.
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[i] Ebara District was one of about 21 districts that made up 武蔵国 Musashi no Kuni Musashi Province.
[ii] Or streams…
[iii] Or streams…
[iv] See my article on alternate attendance where you will see daimyō residences in Edo categorized by 上 kami upper, 中 naka middle, and 下 shimo lower.
[v] More about these names in upcoming articles.
[vi] They were administered by the newly created 世田谷村 Setagaya Mura Setagaya Village.
I loved shimokita- that was where a lot of my friends lived, dj’d and had a skate store called violent grind- which I am sure is long gone… and i lived in kamikitazawa- thanks for bringing back such great memories.
If you like ramen… and you’re interested in Shimo-Kitazawa (in this case, Shin-Daita), check this shit out:
UPDATE:
I mentioned that the station was inconvenient. Lisa from Metropolis Magazine has informed me that the situation is worse now.
“Odakyu/Shimokitazawa: So the Odakyu mess of a station used to be known as being inconvenient as when you entered from the main entrance you’d have to walk down a ridiculously long walkway to get to one platform, while the other was close by. Woe the person that got on the wrong one and had to change platforms. They destroyed the main part of the Odakyu part of the station (Inokashira is thankfully untouched) in the name of convenience. True, since the station has now moved underground, it means pedestrians and cars don’t have to wait a half hour to cross the tracks because of frequent trains (including romance car)… Also, the platforms are next to each other, same as the metro lines. However, they dug down to Oedo-line depths, so my morning commute has literally been extended by 5 minutes, just descending/ascending multiple stairs/escalators to get to the platform. This, I would be fine with, but they actually managed to make the platform area MORE NARROW than previously (which was a problem before). It is impossible to walk down the station on the correct side of the yellow line due to pillars, and people. And no safety walls. (New station, wouldn’t you at least invest in that?) The walk to the women’s car is far more treacherous than any other venture I’ve ever partaken in, and that probably includes some…you know, semi-dangerous stuff. Also, if you get stuck behind a slow person on that path to the car you want… may as well wait for the next one. (Odakyu is notoriously packed in the morning, or *squeeze everyone forcibly in* proportions.) Ahem. So that was an unexpected rant. In short: the station went underground, the platforms are narrow and it should have been made more convenient but it’s the reverse.”
You can check out her blog at:
http://ichigoichielove.blogspot.jp/?m=1