When you think of iconic scenery in the Shukugawa area, the Catholic church probably comes to mind first, but this “Shukugawa Community Center” is surprisingly memorable too.
This community center looks as if it’s floating on a pond, and it was actually built by none other than Konosuke Matsushita.
目次
Matsushita Memorial Hall / Shukugawa Community Center
This is Shukugawa Community Center.
It really is built over the pond.
This is the front of the community center.
Here, it says in large letters, “Nishinomiya Municipal Shukugawa Community Center.”
Next to it, it says “Matsushita Memorial Hall.”
So which one is it?
Some time after the war, Nishinomiya City made plans to build community centers in various areas in order to strengthen social education.
Konosuke Matsushita, the founder of Matsushita Electric, who was living in Nishinomiya at the time, built this building and donated it to the city as a way of giving back to Nishinomiya.
It is said that Matsushita originally built this building as a concert hall (though it’s unclear whether he himself named it Matsushita Memorial Hall).
However, Nishinomiya City, which received the donation, decided to use the building as a community center, so it came to be called “Shukugawa Community Center.” That’s why this building has two names.
Please take a look at the floor plan↓
(Source: Nishinomiya City)
As you can see, it’s a slightly unusual building for a community center, but it makes sense if you think of it as a concert hall.
The original idea was that the office on the first floor would serve as the hall office and ticket counter, Meeting Room 2 would be a cafe attached to the hall, and the Japanese-style room and meeting rooms on the second floor would be dressing rooms for the hall.
Apparently, when seismic reinforcement work was being planned, there was some discussion about removing the hall on the first floor. In the end, they decided it was better to keep it as it was, and carried out the seismic work without demolishing the hall.
In 2015, the hall was renovated, and the sound and lighting equipment were upgraded.
Katahoko Pond and Koroen Amusement Park
Now, the pond where Shukugawa Community Center stands is called “Katahoko Pond.”
Here it is↓
Katahoko Pond has long been beloved by local residents, but it’s also known as the pond where Kansai’s first water chute ride was installed.
(Source: Kobe’s town magazine, Monthly Kobecco)
During the Meiji era, there was an amusement park called “Koroen Amusement Park” around the area south of what is now Hankyu Shukugawa Station.
The name “Koroen Amusement Park” is said to have come from the first characters of the names of the merchants who built it, Kozo Kono and Kiichi Hazeyama.
In addition to the water chute, the amusement park had many facilities that were rare for the time, such as a merry-go-round and a zoo, but visitor numbers did not grow, and it closed after about six years.
At the time, Hankyu Railway had not yet opened between Osaka and Kobe, so the nearest station was on the Hanshin Electric Railway. That led to the creation of a station called “Koroen” on the Hanshin line (written “香枦園” at the time).
Today, when people refer to the Koroen area, they probably mean the southern part along the Shukugawa River, but the Koroen Amusement Park that gave the area its name was actually a little farther north, in the Shukugawa area.
I’d like to write a more detailed article about Koroen someday.
“Shukugawa Park” or “Katahoko Park”?
There is a park around Shukugawa Community Center (Katahoko Pond), and when I was a child, we called that park “Shukugawa Park.”
Also, the area along the Shukugawa River is a long park running north to south, and that was also called “Shukugawa Park.”
Recently, perhaps to distinguish between the two, nearby kindergartens and elementary schools seem to refer to the park around Katahoko Pond as “Katahoko Park.”
So which is correct, “Shukugawa Park” or “Katahoko Park”?
Actually, neither one is correct.
Both the park along the Shukugawa River and the park around Katahoko Pond are officially called “Shukugawa Kasenshiki Ryokuchi” (Shukugawa Riverbed Green Space).
In Closing
The Shukugawa area as we know it today developed mainly around the Hankyu Railway laid by Ichizo Kobayashi, but there is also a theory that the failure of Koroen Amusement Park was what prompted Kobayashi to leave banking and move into the railway business.
There’s something romantic about the fact that on Katahoko Pond, which has watched the Shukugawa area develop through the hands of many merchants and businesspeople, there now stands a community center built by Konosuke Matsushita.
