Commemorative Ticket for Station Renaming: From Kencho-mae to Hakusan-mae 🚃 Issued by Niigata Kotsu Co., Ltd. / June 1, 1985 (Showa 60)
[Introduction to Niigata Paper Ephemera] 🧐
Commemorative Ticket for Station Renaming: From Kencho-mae to Hakusan-mae 🚃
Issued by Niigata Kotsu Co., Ltd. / June 1, 1985 (Showa 60)
Set includes a special envelope and 3 commemorative tickets
A ticket set commemorating June 1, 1985, when Kencho-mae Station was renamed to Hakusan-mae Station following the relocation of the Niigata Prefectural Government office. This set, featuring an illustration of the Hakusan-mae station building on the envelope, is packed with records of the "Dentetsu" (electric railway) that ran through the center of Niigata City 🎫
[Content Overview] 🧐
◯ Issued by Niigata Kotsu Co., Ltd.
Issued on June 1, 1985 (Showa 60), the same day Kencho-mae Station was renamed to Hakusan-mae Station.
◯ The Niigata Kotsu Electric Railway line connected Hakusan-mae Station (formerly Kencho-mae) and Tsubame Station, and was affectionately known as "Dentetsu" by residents along the line.
It opened in stages starting in 1933 (Showa 8), and the full 36.1 km line was completed on August 15 of that same year.
◯ The tickets feature photographs of "a one-man train and the Hakusan-mae station building," "the old Niigata Prefectural Government building," and "Niigata's guardian shrine, Hakusan Shrine."
◯ The back of the tickets includes three mini-guides: "History of the Electric Railway," "Explanation of the Old Prefectural Government Building," and "Explanation of Hakusan Shrine."
The composition offers high documentary value that goes beyond a typical commemorative ticket.
A mini-map of the area around Hakusan-mae Station is also printed on the back of the envelope.
◯ When you open the special envelope, the inside top flap features an illustration of the Hakusan-mae station building and a greeting from Niigata Kotsu Co., Ltd., while the bottom unfolds to show the "Niigata Kotsu Electric Railway Map" with distances between all stations.
◯ Just seven years after this commemorative ticket was issued, in 1992 (Heisei 4), the section between Hakusan-mae and Higashi-Sekiya was discontinued.
Hakusan-mae Station itself, which had celebrated its renaming, disappeared first. The section between Yahiko and Tsubame was closed in 1993 (Heisei 5), and the entire line was discontinued on April 5, 1999 (Heisei 11), bringing the 66-year history of the "Dentetsu" to an end.
◯ The site of the former Hakusan-mae Station has been developed into "Ichibanbori Square," where a public restroom modeled after the former station building now stands.
📖 A "Cross-section of History" told through paper
From "Kencho-mae" to "Hakusan-mae"—those who held these tickets could never have known that the station renaming, which marked the change in the city due to the relocation of the prefectural office, would become the prologue to the station's own eventual closure.
The streetcar, the old prefectural government building, Hakusan Shrine—the photographs lined up on the tickets quietly preserve a landscape of Niigata that can no longer be seen today 😌
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