The Keio Line principally connects Shinjuku to the western side of Tokyo with seven different lines running through to the likes of suburban city Hachiōji and the mountainous area at Takaosanguchi. All of it’s stations actually lie within the boundaries of Tokyo and, thanks to regular free tickets, Tokyo Fox has dug deep to come up with a few places worthy of visit beyond perennial favourites like Mount Takao and Tama Zoo……

#10 – Kitarō Park @ 1-58-5 Shimoishiwara, Chofu, Tokyo.

A student told me about this park many years ago, and it did still sound interesting even though I was totally unaware of what it was all about! I’m not one to let small matters like that get in the way of seeing interesting and unique places though. This park is a short walk away from Chōfu Station and is full of objects and playground equipment relating to yōkai (a class of supernatural entities and spirits in Japanese folklore) and characters that appear in the works of Japanese manga artist Shigeru Mizuki who is an honorary citizen of Chōfu.

‘GeGeGe no Kitarō’ (a.k.a. Kitarō of the Graveyard), is a famous manga series in Japan that was created in 1960, and is part of pop culture in this country.

It helped popularise the folklore creatures known as yōkai, a class of spirit-monster which all of the main characters belong to. Thanks to a couple of Japanese friends, I now know that the large, sleepy-eyed, wall-shaped yōkai (below) is called Nurikabe (a.k.a. plastered wall).

Ittan Momen (a.k.a. Roll of cotton) is a flying yōkai (below) that supposedly resembles a strip of white cloth which Kitarō and friends often ride on when travelling. I just thought it was some kind of arty bench to sit or lie on when I was there!

Kitarō House was sadly off limits when I went here in 2022. Of course I didn’t want to go on the slide as that would have been a bit weird not that it’s not weird that a man of my age is hanging around a kids park and taking photos!! I just wanted to take a closer look at this minituare wooden hut with a thatched roof!

To be fair, I was expecting a slighly bigger park so was quite surprised to have seen and done it all within five minutes or so! Maybe if I had done my research into the characters and story beforehand then I may have appreciated it a bit more at the time of my visit.

Click on the following links to read previous ‘Hidden Treasures Along The Keio Line’ posts…

#1. Nakayasu Hotel     #2. Mount Arigata     #3. Toko-ji Temple     #4. Earth Tech Char Sub-One     #5. National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ)     #6. Inter University Seminar House     #7. Takahata Fudoson Kongo-Ji Temple     #8. Mind Wa A Building     #9. The “Wall-E” Building