Niigata 8 晴天の川と、夢の跡の線路跡 Riverside park and old railtrack full of stories

４日目は、ピアマルシェをのぞき（時化で漁はお休み！）、リバーサイドパークまで歩いて、朱鷺メッセ、万代島美術館をのぞく。そこのショップで、探していた本「新潟古町100選」と運命の出会いを果たし、購入！それから沼垂テラス商店街をふらふら。バラックに現代的なカフェやお店が入っており、味のあるエリア。

で新潟のお友達と再び合流して、新潟市と沼垂町はかつて別々の自治体で、ライバルだったという話を聞いた。水運を握っていた新潟がやはり強かったらしい。鉄道誘致合戦も繰り広げられたが、川幅の広い信濃川を鉄道で渡ることは困難で、沼垂に鉄道ができた。これに納得しなかった新潟市の過激派は、鉄道開業数日前に線路を爆破するというテロに出る。明治初期の、1890年代のことで、たった130年くらい前。中東の過激派テロのようなことが起こっていた。沼垂に鉄道が建設されてからは、物流力で互角になり、鉄道を使いたかった新潟が和解を申し込んだという。で、鉄道周辺は大変栄えたが、今は廃線になり、草が生い茂る。まさに、「兵どもが夢のあと」。

On day 4, we took a look at the Pier Marche (fishing was closed due to rough current!), walked to Riverside Park, visited Toki Messe conference center and Bandaijima Art Museum.  At the museum store, I had a lucky encounter with a book I was looking for, "100 Things to Do in Furumachi, Niigata" and bought it!  Then, I wandered around the Nuttari Terrace shopping street.  It is a unique area with modern cafes and stores set up in old barracks.  

I met up with a friend from Niigata again, and he told me many interesting episodes of Niigata. For example, Niigata City and Nuttari Town were once two different municipalities, and were rivals.  Niigata, which held control of water transportation, was the stronger of the two.  The two competed fiercely to attract a railroad construction project to their own land. In the end, railroad was built in Nuttari because it was difficult to cross the wide Shinano River by rail.  Unsatisfied with this, the extremists in Niigata City resorted to terrorism by blowing up part of the new tracks a few days before the railroad was to open.  This was in the early Meiji period, in the 1890s, only about 130 years ago.  It was no different than militant terrorism happening in the Middle East.  After the railroad was built in Nuttari, they became evenly matched in logistics, and Niigata, who wanted to use the railroad, offered a settlement.  Then they reconsiled.  The area around the railroad prospered greatly, but now the line is abandoned, and the grass covers it all.  It is truly the scene that Basho depicted in his Haiku poem, after he visited Oushu, current Tohoku area, which prospered with gold rush then became deserted.