Where the name Sakuragicho 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.
Sakuragicho's name comes not from a famous avenue of cherry trees but from a vanished waterway called the Sakuragi River. In the early Meiji period, large sections of the Noge waterfront were reclaimed to build railway tracks and new streets. A channel was preserved for boats, initially known as Sakuragigawa and later renamed Sakuragawa. In May 1872, the new neighborhood beside it received the name Sakuragicho, before Japan's first railway officially opened.
The river once ran west of today's Sakuragicho Station and connected with the Ooka River system, allowing goods to move by boat. After the devastating Yokohama air raid of 1945, Sakuragawa was designated as a disposal site for war debris. Filling began in 1948 and was completed in 1954. A working waterway became a city road.
Leave the station through the west exit and follow Sakuragawa Shindo, the street occupying the former river corridor. Cars now travel where boats once passed. Then climb toward the hills of Noge. The contrast between the level reclaimed ground and the older slopes makes the area's transformation easy to understand. Sakuragicho preserves the name of a river that has disappeared from the map.
→ Follow Sakuragawa Shindo west of Sakuragicho Station, tracing the former waterway filled in by 1954. Then climb toward Noge to compare the older hillside with the flat reclaimed land below.
Sources (in Japanese): 横浜市中区・中区の町名とその歩み 桜木町, 横浜市・川のはなし 第八稿 桜川と派大岡川の歴史
Sakuragicho Station stands on the site of Yokohama's original railway terminus. Japan's first railway opened between Shimbashi and Yokohama in 1872, with its final stop here. To build the line, the government reclaimed sections of the waterfront. Entrepreneur Takashima Kaemon undertook major construction works, creating a railway embankment across the coastal waters between Noge and the Aokicho area. Steam trains soon ran along what had recently been part of the sea.
In 1915, Yokohama Station moved to Takashimacho, and the original terminus was renamed Sakuragicho. Meanwhile, the surrounding coastline was being transformed into a modern harbor. A port railway opened in 1911, linking the main rail network to the Shinko Pier area. Freight trains carried goods between ships, warehouses, and inland destinations.
Today, office towers and shopping complexes fill much of the waterfront east of the station. Yet the railway landscape has not completely disappeared. Follow the promenade called Kishamichi, or Railway Promenade, which opened in 1997 on the former port railway route. Historic tracks and bridges remain above the water. Walking across them connects Japan's earliest railway history with the industrial harbor that shaped modern Yokohama.
→ Walk east from Sakuragicho Station onto Kishamichi, following the historic port railway over the water.
Sources (in Japanese): 横浜都市発展記念館・鉄道と横浜 横浜駅をめぐる明治・大正・昭和, 横浜市港湾局・汽車道に鉄道遺構展示施設を整備しました
Every Thursday we post picks for the Tokyo weekend on Instagram at @kyochika.tokyo. Add this site to your home screen to open it like an app.
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).