落合南長崎
Ochiai Minami-Nagasaki
(combination of two names)
This station sits at the border of Shinjuku Ward and Toshima Ward. On the Shinjuku side, the area is called 西落合 Nishi-Ochiai West Ochiai. On the Toshima side, it’s called 南長崎 Minami Nagasaki South Nagasaki. When the station name was chosen, both place names were combined to protect the delicate sensibilities of the inhabitants of both wards.
Ochiai is an easy name to explain. It comes from the Japanese compound verb 落ち合う ochiau which describes when roads or river meet up. In this case, it refers to the confluence of the 妙正寺川 Myōshōji-gawa Myōshōji River and the 神田川 Kanda-gawa Kanda River. Nagasaki is not a reference to the famous city of Nagasaki in Kyūshū. In the Kamakura Period, this area was the fief of the 長崎氏 Nagasaki-shi Nagasaki clan who were retainers of the 北条氏 Hōjō-shi Hōjō clan, the shōgunal regents in Kamakura.
I’ve never used this station, but from the looks of things on Google Maps, it’s just a residential area. There are some university campuses and a park and not much else of note.
