Where the name Gakugei-daigaku 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.
There is no Tokyo Gakugei University near Gakugei-daigaku Station. The university moved to Koganei in 1964, but the station kept its name. When the station opened on August 28, 1927, it was called Himonya. It became Aoyama Shihan in 1936, Daiichi Shihan in 1943, and finally Gakugei-daigaku on July 1, 1952. Each change reflected the educational institution associated with the neighborhood.
The station actually stands in Takaban, a place name linked to the shoguns' falconry grounds. According to one local theory, Takaban referred to a watch post overseeing hunting territory. The name originally applied to land east of the station toward Meguro-dori. Nearby fields and the Himonya Pond formed part of a rural landscape where the Tokugawa shoguns hunted birds.
Walk southwest from the station and you reach Benten Pond in Himonya Park. Before becoming a public park, the pond supplied irrigation water to village rice fields. The university has gone, but three kinds of history remain close together: the station's academic name, the falconry place name, and the agricultural pond.
→ Walk east from the station through the Takaban shopping streets, then head southwest to Himonya Park. Its Benten Pond once irrigated village rice fields. Although the university has moved away, the neighborhood name and surviving pond preserve memories of life before the railway.
Sources (in Japanese): 東急電鉄「学芸大学駅周辺の住みやすさは？」, 目黒区「目黒の地名 鷹番」
The busy shopping streets around Gakugei-daigaku Station were once part of a rural hunting landscape. From the reign of the eighth Tokugawa shogun, Yoshimune, the countryside around Edo was divided into six major falconry zones. Meguro was a central part of one of them, known as Meguro-suji. A watch post supervising the hunting grounds is said to have stood east of the present station, toward Meguro-dori.
Walk southwest to Himonya Park and you will find Benten Pond. In the farming era, it was a communal reservoir supplying water to rice fields. Wild ducks gathered here, making the wetland attractive for falconry. The pond was also a source of the Tachiai River, which now flows underground through much of the district. Higher fields, a pond in the lower ground, and the valley carrying its water formed a connected agricultural landscape.
The Takaban area remained sparsely populated into the late Meiji period. Everything changed when the Toyoko Line opened in 1927, encouraging rapid residential development. Himonya Park opened in 1933. The hunting fields and farms gave way to homes and shops, but the pond and the name Takaban still preserve the neighborhood's earlier identity.
→ Walk from Gakugei-daigaku Station to Himonya Park and circle Benten Pond. Boats now float where farmers once stored irrigation water. The Tachiai River, which begins around this area, has been covered over. Following the low ground around the pond helps reconstruct the former farming landscape.
Sources (in Japanese): 目黒区「目黒の地名 鷹番」, 目黒区「碑文谷公園」
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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).