Unintended Consequences, downtown version: Carlit Forest カーリットの森 1

 

Yokohama is a port city. Our downtown spreads near Tokyo Bay. To be exact, when we, citizens of Yokohama, think “downtown,” it’s in Tsurumi 鶴見, Kanagawa 神奈川, Nishi 西, Minami 南, Naka 中, and Isogo 磯子 Wards. Borderline case is Hodogaya 保土ヶ谷 Ward. This is the area where Tokaido 東海道, i.e. National Route 1, Metropolitan Expressway and bypasses to Tomei and Ken’oh Expressways run in the middle. Those roads are the major Japanese arterials. The reason why it is so is, during the Tokugawa Shogunate Period, the Ward was the area for a post-town, called Hodogaya-shuku 保土ヶ谷宿 (please see my post on November 4, 2016). There, Feudal Lords of the 17th-19th Centuries were ordered to spend at least a night during their journey to/from Edo, aka Tokyo, to meet their boss, i.e. Shogun. Inevitably, the place established its status as a transportation hub. It continues to be so even in the 21st century. During Japanese industrial revolution from the 1880s to the 1960s, many corporations had their factories and offices in Hodogaya Ward along Tokaido. One of them was Japan Carlit Corporation. In 1919, they started to have a large factory for explosives in the area spreading between Hodogaya and Asahi 旭 Wards.

To this direction for IC entering Metropolitan Expressway …

During the 1960s when Japan had a break-neck economic growth, Tokyo and Japanese population got larger and larger. That was the time when Yokohama solidified its status as Tokyo’s commuter town. Real bayside of Yokohama had gigantic industrial and port complexes, and so they maintained inorganic scenery. Hodogaya had a different story. Yep, still along the Route 1 there remained lots of large businesses (e.g., Sony), but off the industrial road, housing developers were busy to create suburbia. The factory of explosives faced an awkward situation, eventually enclosed by multilayers of ordinary houses. In 1995 Japan Carlit sold the land to the City of Yokohama and moved the plant to their larger facility in Gun’ma Prefecture 群馬県. Interesting thing is, as the place was once for explosives, the former corporate campus had a large artificial forest. Let me explain.

Japan has Explosives Control Act 火薬取締法. It strictly regulates structural plans of explosives factories in order to minimize the effect of accident, just in case. So, to build the workshop, Japan Carlit landscaped their land complying legal requirement. For example, the law says such-a-such process of explosives making must be underground; no lateral corridor is allowed between Process A and Process B, and so on. The company built artificial hill and drilled the foot of synthetic rise for isolated tunnels leading to each independent manufacturing floor. “The workplaces are now underground, aren’t they? Legal requirement is observed.” In addition, the Act demands the business to cover such factories not only with soil, concrete, bricks, etc., but also lots of vegetation to mitigate the possible blast wave reaching to the outside. The manufacturing facility had gone, but those afforested flora remained, or to be exact, thrive over the now-empty workplaces. They became Carlit Forest.

A human created hill for explosives factory

An entrance to one workshop floor.
 In order to move to the next room, people used …

minecarts ran by lead storage battery.
The tracks were built in artificial valleys
 between the elevations.

Now inside of a tunnel is like this.

The forest surrounded the factory, early spring 2022.

So, Carlit Forest was originally created not for agricultural purposes, or for protecting ecosystem. Whateva. The place now is one of the few greeneries in downtown Yokohama. The Forest was first opened in 2011 as Tachibana Hill Park たちばなの丘公園 for the area where the main remnants of the factory and offices stood (er, well, went underground). The rest of the Forest is divided into two parts; one is Ichizawa Citizen Forest 市沢市民の森, and another is nature reserve. Tachibana Park and Ichigaya Citizen Forest are very relaxing space. Next week, I tell you the access etc. for Carlit Forest. Pls. stay tuned! 😊

If you find a problem in the greenery of north-half of Yokohama, please make a contact with

Office for the Park Greeneries in the North
北部公園緑地事務所
Yokohama Municipal Government Creative Environment Policy Bureau
横浜市環境創造局
Phone: 045-311-2016
FAX: 045-316-8420