Where the name Funabori comes from, what stood here before the station, and what you can still spot on a walk today. Then the events near the station that we have checked on the official pages.
Funabori's name is closely connected to boats and waterways. A local historical study published by Edogawa City Library records that the district was known as Funabori Shinden around the mid-seventeenth century. The nearby Funabori River provided access for boats traveling between Edo and Gyotoku, making water transport an important part of local life. The name is generally understood to refer to a channel used by boats.
Walk south from Funabori Station and you reach the Shin River. Before large-scale engineering work, the route connecting the Edo River through the Furukawa and Funabori River to the Nakagawa formed a winding waterway. In 1629, the Tokugawa shogunate widened the western section and excavated a straighter channel to the east. This became the Shin River, an essential route for transporting salt from Gyotoku to Edo.
The surrounding land was low and wet, with farming settlements developing alongside canals and drainage channels. Today, elevated railway tracks and residential streets dominate the district, but the river remains a direct link to the past. Follow its banks westward and imagine the cargo boats that once passed through this quiet water corridor.
→ Walk south from Funabori Station to the Shin River and follow its landscaped banks westward. The route leads toward the Old Nakagawa waterway system. The restored riverside streetscape evokes the days when boats carried salt and merchandise through Funabori.
Sources (in Japanese): 江戸川区立図書館『江戸川地名の変遷とその集解』船堀村, 江戸川区文化財・史跡「新川」
Until around 1965, much of the area around Funabori Station was occupied by rice fields and lotus ponds. The modern station plaza, cultural facilities, and shopping streets replaced a landscape shaped by wetland farming. Walk south and you reach the Shin River, once one of Edo's important commercial waterways. Known as the Salt Road, it carried salt from Gyotoku in present-day Chiba Prefecture toward the capital. Shops selling miso and soy sauce, along with restaurants, operated beside the canal.
During the Edo period, boats transported salt, food, and other cargo along the river. Steam-powered riverboats later joined this traffic during the Meiji era. The Shin River connected westward with the Nakagawa and the Onagi River, providing access to central Edo. Because the terrain is almost completely flat, both farming and transport depended on the management of water.
Funabori Station opened on December 23, 1983, as part of the Toei Shinjuku Line. Residential and commercial development expanded around the new station. The Shin River was subsequently transformed into a landscaped waterfront with walking paths and cherry trees, completed in 2015. The former district of fields and cargo boats became a modern residential center while retaining its historic waterway.
→ Walk south from Funabori Station to the Shin River's cherry-lined promenade. Approximately 718 cherry trees representing around twenty varieties grow along its three-kilometer corridor. Traditional-style bridges and a reconstructed fire lookout evoke the days when salt boats and river steamers traveled this route.
Sources (in Japanese): 江戸川区「船堀駅前地区まちづくり基本構想等」, 江戸川区「新川千本桜」
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We list events we could confirm on the official page or official Instagram of the venue or organiser. Details can change, tickets sell out and venues close, so check the official page before you go. Distances are straight-line and travel times are rough estimates. Photos show the venue or its surroundings, not the event itself. Titles and descriptions are our own translations from Japanese. This site contains affiliate links (ads).