International Railroad Discussion > What is this replica Yoshistune?

I was driving down central Japan through Wakasa hongo station near Obama and encountered this replica Michino Eki and in the parking lot a reproduction Yoshitsune. The real one I viewed at the Kyoto Railway museum. What is the history of this reproduction?  Builders plate would never be secured with phillips screws and the rods are certainly suspect.  Interior is suspect.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/16/19 02:00 by Railpax71.

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As you can see it is a Hollywood boiler in the cab!

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This is the first of the class 7100 engines, named "Yoshitsune" which had ever operated in Hokkaido, Horonai rail system.
It was named after "Minamoto no Yoshitune" who was a military commander of the Minamoto clan (1159-1189) in the late "Heian" and early "Kamakura era.
Hope this helps,

Hiroshi

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/17/19 07:54 by Hiroshi.

Hiroshi, yes but what is this copy?  How did the copy come to being and be located in this town of the windmill depot? The original Yoshitune is in the Kyoto museum and operational.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/17/19 15:15 by Railpax71.

Railpax71 Wrote:
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> Hiroshi, yes but what is this copy?  How did the
> copy come to being and be located in this town of
> the windmill depot? The original Yoshitune is in
> the Kyoto museum and operational.

The original Yoshitsune was used for The International Garden and Greenery Expo in Osaka, in 1990 as one of the "rides" available for the well-attended international "Flower Expo" (nickname). The Expo size was 140 hectares (346 acres).

The stations served by the Yoshitsune were "Windmill" and "Mountain" stations within the Expo. The Windmill station was moved to Wakasa-Hongo, and my guess is that to remind people of the heritage of the station building, a replica of the Yoshitsune was built nearby.

The "Windmill" station building was supposed to be located near a windmill during the Expo, but I suspect no windmill is nearby at Wakasa-hongo now. The windmill still stands at what is now called the Flower Expo Memorial Park. 

It's a 3 hour train ride from the Tsurumi Ward (the area within Osaka where the Expo was held) to Wakasa-Hongo and about 2 hours drive covering about 140 km (87 miles). I've yet to find out why the station building was moved all the way to the Japan Sea side in Fukui Prefecture, but the reason could be as simple as someone who wanted to preserve a great-looking building after the Expo was finished.

Many unanswered questions about the station and the Yoshitsune replica. I supposed some of the answers are in the exhibit within the station.

Ohi-machi (Ohi-town), which manages the Wakasa-Hongo station, was rich in finances because there is a nuclear power plant, and was able to take over the "Windmill" station building and the Yoshitsune issue of the copy used at the World Expo. The building is said to have a motif of the world of the fairy tale "Hey! Get Off Our Train" of British writer John Burningham. Please see the following websites.

https://www.hokurikushinkansen-navi.jp/pc/news/article.php?id=NEWS0000007591
http://www.atw.ne.jp/~suwa_h/HokurikuEki/Eki/WakasaHongou/WakasaHongou.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%8Ci,_Fukui



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/27/19 13:28 by BN7023.

BN7023 Wrote:
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> Please see the following websites.
>
> https://www.hokurikushinkansen-navi.jp/pc/news/article.php?id=NEWS0000007591
> http://www.atw.ne.jp/~suwa_h/HokurikuEki/Eki/WakasaHongou/WakasaHongou.html
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%8Ci,_Fukui

Thanks for the links. The second link briefly discusses the Yoshitsune, and errorneously implies it's the same one that ran at the Flower Expo. So Railpax71's question remains unanswered, how did that replica came to be?

https://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/ozayo1965/31886520.html

The above link is a blog which has photos taken in July and August of 1990 (at the Flower Expo) of the Yoshitsune.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/28/19 12:13 by cchan006.

I found once reference to a replica but it stated that it was destroyed.  The nuclear facility tax money is an explanation of how the station came to be. Still what is the replica Yoshitune?  I will make another trip to the area soon at hours when the rest stop and station are manned.

Look at two Google Streetviews. It is written that these images were taken in June 2018.

https://goo.gl/maps/o8G1m3ceH8829FDT9
or https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!4v1556612032465!6m8!1m7!1s6xoIF2KEH4SGrqQBaT9uAQ!2m2!1d35.4831256837692!2d135.6189684763054!3f150.79!4f-2.9099999999999966!5f0.7820865974627469

https://goo.gl/maps/ynRmcnbDqvHzbmvR8
or https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!4v1556609396699!6m8!1m7!1sC044wSQxTQVM5CnDePhk7w!2m2!1d35.48309673731028!2d135.6193569934813!3f208.22961267511477!4f-2.242660054888944!5f1.1924812503605782



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 05/14/19 06:23 by BN7023.

There is no doubt that the reason why this replica of the Yoshitsune is on display at Wakasa-Hongo Station is the financial strength of Ohi-cho. However, I did not know what was directly linked them, but I noticed when I was looking at the cover of the picture book "Hey! Get Off Our Train" by John Burningham. The title of the Japanese translation by Machi Tawara is "Oh-i, O-ri-te-yo." Do you understand? The first part of the title is "O-o-i" and the name of the municipality is "O-o-i" if you read slowly. And the publisher of this book is the affiliate of the railway that exhibited the replica and the station building to the Flower and Green Exposition, and the Yoshitsune comes out in the picture book. The image is taken from amazon.co.jp.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 05/04/19 13:41 by BN7023.

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