There are two important items in Mr. Otsuka’s collection. One is the driver’s cab of a Tamaden train. The other is a scrapbook of his own making, which he had made two or three years before he learned of the demise of Tamaden in 1969. I tried to imagine what the scenery would be like if the Tamaden were to disappear from what was once the Oyama Highway, or Route 246 as it is now called, but it was hard to imagine,” Otsuka said with a calm expression as if reminiscing about the old days. Anyway, I decided to take some pictures before the Tamaden ran out, so I took the Tamaden to Shibuya and walked from there to Futakotamagawaen, taking pictures of the scenery of the city. I put them in a scrapbook. I put them in a scrapbook, along with data and newspaper clippings from the time. It was also fortunate that I had always liked cutting and pasting,” he says. At the time, I had no idea that I would open a history museum. I was happy to think that all the work I had done, one by one, had paid off,” he said. Of course, the scrapbook is one of the valuable materials in the museum’s collection. He has shown them to visitors to the museum to the point of exhaustion.
There are a large number of record needle cases and EP disc adapters.
These are also part of Mr. Otsuka’s collection, which he never throws away.
As Mr. Otsuka continued to talk and cough, I asked him what Tama-den meant to him. When I was a child, Tama-den was the biggest object I had ever seen. My sister married in Sangenjaya, and I trained at a buckwheat noodle shop in the same Sangenjaya. Tamaden was always by my side. I opened a restaurant in Futakotamagawa the year after Tamaden disappeared. When I think about it, I’ve always had a connection with Tamaden,” he said. Mr. Otsuka sits in the middle of the history museum and continues to welcome customers.
From his countless collections, he displays a special feature each month. The announcements and the nameplate on the front of the museum are all handmade.
In the end, I guess I like people,” he says. The people I meet here are from different backgrounds, backgrounds, and occupations. People I wouldn’t have met if I hadn’t run the museum. I think this is all thanks to my buckwheat noodle shop business,” he assured, smiling, “I’m very happy now. Mr. Otsuka’s eyes were shining like those of a child.
Tama Den Tokyodo Rekishikan
3-38-6 Tamagawa, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo
080-1227-6158
Hours of operation: Noon – 3:00 p.m.
Closed: Monday, Wednesday, Friday
Text: Hiroyuki Imamura Photo: Sanaka Okamoto