近代都市計画と街路樹 : 日本の場合

Abstract

The historical development of the street trees of the city in Japan began with the introduction of the modern European city planning. Their earlier examples appeared in the early days of Meiji Era (1870s) in the foreign settlements in Kobe and Yokohama, and then in Tokyo. The Japanese in those days admired especially these early examples, because it depended upon that people belived they were the transplantation of the European city streets. The city streets with trees (i.e. boulevard or avenue) were planned in the first place in "Tokyo-shiku-kaisei-an" (The city planning for the improvement of Tokyo) that is regarded as the first modern city planning in Japan. Street trees were one of the important symbols for the idea of improving cities. But they in fact increased in number in the latter half of Meiji Era (1890s). The street trees in Tokyo were regarded as the best model for whose development the staffs of "Tokyo-shi-koen-ka" (Department of Public Parks & Gardens Tokyo) made efforts. But they (landscape architects) intended mostly to increase the numbers of the street trees and not to make planting plan a part of city planning. The reason was that city planners had little interest to the street trees. They spoke of the importance of boulevards and avenues, but had little idea of better methods for planting street trees. The most important role of street trees in the modern city planning was not to give shades for pedestrians or hide ugly buildings, but to give the image what the modern city in Japan ought to be.