Recently I went to rural Tokyo (yes, it has a rural part) to visit Edo-Tokyo Tatemono, the 25 building architectural park that preserves old Tokyo buildings. Its collection includes the homes of Edo era farmers and a prime minister as well as small businesses. So given the location it should have been no surprise it’s been used for shooting TV and movies, including the TBS live-action version of Kono Sekai no Katasumi ni (In This Corner of the World).

Before visiting I didn’t realize it had been used in the show and found out when I was talking to a guide and she said they shot TV shows and movies here. I asked her if I’d know any. She said “no.” So I asked what was the last production they shot and she said “Kono Sekai.” So unfortunately this means I didn’t recreate any actual shots from the episodes filmed here.

Kono Sekai is about Suzu, a young Hiroshima woman who marries a Navy legal clerk and chronicles her daily life during wartime Japan in Hiroshima and Kure. I kind of highly recommend the anime version, but despite its flaws the live action was fun to watch too.

For the live-action production Edo-Tokyo Tatemono’s east zone city street stood in for Hiroshima’s ill-fated Nakajima-honmachi during its better days. Nakajima-honmachi was the area directly across the river from the atomic bomb hypocenter and was almost entirely annihilated. Before that it was a popular shopping district with lots of shops, restaurants and theaters.

Edo-Tokyo’s street is interesting by itself because it’s almost entirely the product of a particular historic event. Most of its buildings were constructed in the mid-1920s because the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake destroyed much of the city resulting in a lot of reconstruction once the debris was cleared. These shops are among the results and their construction reflects the post-quake efforts to make Tokyo more fire resistant.

The street is not that long but thanks to CGI its ‘lengthened,’ an empty lot filled and has been given Nakajima-honmachi’s distinctive street lights. I also noticed that when Suzu runs down the street she’s basically running five feet and being shot from three directions to make it appear she’s going farther.

The place where Suzu purchased Morinaga milk caramels is Yamato-ya grocery store. It was built in 1928 and maintained in its pre-war configuration, perfect for young Suzu’s visit though the cigarette stand was added after the war.

  Suzu purchases a notepad from Takei Sanshodo, which really is a stationary shop and beside it is a “clothing store” that’s really Hanaichi, a flower store. Both were built in 1927 and came from Chiyoda, the central special ward of Tokyo that’s home to the Imperial Palace and Tokyo Station. Both are built in the kanban or “oversized signboard” style popular during the post-earthquake reconstruction and restored to look as they did in 1955. The copper front of Hanaichi was a fire prevention measure.

Suzu delivers her family’s nori at Mantoku Inn, one of the few buildings on the street that survived the 1923 earthquake. This traditional style inn was erected sometime in the mid-1800s and was in operation until 1993.

At the end of the street is the Kodakara-yu public bathhouse built in 1929.

TV connections aside, this was a fun place to visit. Inside and out the shops and homes are restored to convey the feeling of a certain long gone time and place and it shows. What Edo-Tokyo Tatemono lacks in volume it has in quality and its singular focus allows it to uniquely convey the different historic periods of a city as it rose from the feudal era to the early space age.

Though this story is about just the Kono Sekai shooting street I’m working on another that will be about Edo-Tokyo Tatemono itself as I have for Meiji-mura and Kaitaku no Mura. All three were worth seeing for their different qualities.

For anyone interested in recreating scenes here through cosplay, the museum does allow it but requires that you come already in costume and makeup prepared as they don’t appreciate people doing that on site and request that you not interfere with the other patrons.

Previously I’d also visited Hiroshima and found another shooting spot, the actual stairs leading from the Motoyasu River to the Peace Park, which was at the time Nakajima-honmachi, which little Suzu went up. This was already one of my favorite spots at the Peace Park so I was happy when I found it. (It was previously mentioned in Hanami in Hiroshima)The stairs are a little hidden so you have to be looking for them. At the Peace Park tip of Aioibashi if you look to your left and down you’ll see the narrow, steep stair well hidden behind a tree. If coming from the Peace Museum direction along the water front the stairs are still hidden by a tree and also ground level so are almost completely invisible until you come right upon them.

Note the dark moss above Suzu’s head and to the left matches what I shot.

If you want to copy Suzu’s pencil shot stand by the atomic Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall (Genbaku Dome) marker in the Peace Park across from the Genbaku Dome. Incidentally, the same principle is applied if you want to copy the Fukuya Department Store shot from the animated film as their reference shot was taken from beside that bomb survivor marker as well. Fukuya was 710 from the atomic bomb hypocenter but being a steel-reinforced concrete building survived the blast.

I can’t quite imitate the shot perfectly with Suzu’s arm placement as I’m holding a camera in one hand and the pencil in the other.

I don’t have the same natural finish pencil as Suzu, but I do have a pre-1942 Ticonderoga so used that. Because hoarders have existed since the Bible (Noah was the first hoarder) and their unused pencils end up on eBay when they die and their age can be confirmed because no matter how small something is, someone has obsessed over it’s history and made a website about it so you can tell pre-war pencils from wartime.

If you read through all this despite having never seen or read Kono Sekai in any of its iterations, I recommend you start by watching the 2016 animated movie. If you fall in love with it, read the original manga because the animated film does what you can’t do with a black and white manga but the manga does what you can’t do with just two hours and really gets into Suzu’s world. You’ll learn a lot. If you still want more, then watch the 2018 TBS drama and finally the 2011 NTV special in that order. An extended cut of the animated film is also being re-released in Japanese theaters Dec. 20, 2019 as Kono Sekai no (Sara ni Ikutsumono) Katasumi Ni or In This Corner (and Other Corners) of the World.

ADDRESS
Edo-Tokyo Tatemono
3-7-1 Sakuracho, Koganei-shi, Tokyo (inside Koganei Park) 84-0005
042-388-3300
https://www.tatemonoen.jp/english/

Official Kono Sekai Websites
http://www.tbs.co.jp/konoseka_tbs/ (Japanese/TBS Drama)
https://konosekai.jp/ (Japanese/ Animated Movie)
https://ikutsumono-katasumini.jp/ (Japanese/Extended Re-release)
https://www.inthiscornermovie.com/ (English/ Animated Movie)

All movie or TV stills used solely for reference and are the property of their respective owners.