Goodbye Udaka Route 109 years history 18:38 on January 28

The Udaka route, which was the main artery of Shikoku and Honshu. The last ferry ceased service last month, ushering in more than a century of history.
"Boarded at a milestone in life"
"I just ran"
"Udon I ate on board"
Many people with different memories seemed to feel the end of history with emotion.
(Takamatsu Broadcasting Station reporter Taichi Yokoyama)

Last day of Udaka route

Night on the 15th of last month. Many people visited Takamatsu Port even though the sun began to cool down.

What I was waiting for was a ferry, Daiichi Shodoshima Maru, departing at 7:50 pm for Uno Port in Okayama Prefecture. This is the last flight of the Udaka route with a history of 109 years.

More than 250 passengers who were farewelled formed a line, and more than 100 people came to see them off.

And at 7:50 pm. As before, the thunder rang and the ship began to leave the port.

“Goodbye” and “thank you” voices came out of the harbor one after another and continued to echo until the ship was no longer visible.

We asked the passengers and those who saw them off.

"I'm lonely because I used it to go to school. I burn it in my eyes."

"I used it when I was traveling with my family.

It is clear that the Udaka route has become an inseparable part of people's precious memories.

Aorta of Shikoku and Honshu

The "Udaka Route" was named after the connection between Uno Port in Tamano City, Okayama Prefecture and Takamatsu Port in Takamatsu City. The history is old, and it is the beginning that the old National Railways operated as a ferry in 1873.

Private companies started to operate ferries on the Udaka route one after another in the 1950s, when the number of passengers began to increase, connecting Shikoku and Honshu in one to one and a half hours.

In 1955, the ferry “Shinun Maru” of the former National Railways collided with another ship off the coast of Takamatsu City, killing 168 people, including elementary school students, on a school trip.

Still, the number of customers is increasing year by year. During the peak period from the 1975 to the 1960s, the number of flights at the peak was 150 round trips, and ships were traversing the sea routes for 24 hours.

Takamatsu Port and Uno Port were the busiest ports in Japan

There are statistics showing how many passengers were on the Udaka route. These are "Port Statistics in Japan" compiled by the former Ministry of Transport, and "Port Statistics" in the present.

This statistics contains data on the number of passengers at ports nationwide, but for 15 years from 1957, Takamatsu Port and Uno Port occupied the first and second largest passenger numbers.

According to the Kagawa Prefectural Transportation Policy Division, "Takamatsu Port and Uno Port were the busiest ports in the country at the time, mainly because the Udaka route functioned as an aorta connecting Shikoku and Honshu."

Utaka route at the milestone of life

I visited a former user about what the Udaka route was like.

I'm Kenji Oyama, a priest at a temple in Takamatsu. The first memory is in the 1960s. Oyama, who was still young, was taken by his grandfather every weekend and took a ferry on the Udaka route. This is to visit my grandmother who was admitted to a hospital in Okayama.

(Kenji Oyama)
"The Udaka route had a lot of ferry services and it was easy to get there if I waited for 10 minutes. I was always excited about which ferry I would take today. My first memory of the Udaka route was my grandfather It was an "excursion."

Oyama who graduated from high school in Takamatsu City enters university in Tokyo. For the first time in my life leaving Shikoku, I used a ship on the Udaka route.

On the ship, I left the place where I was born and raised, and felt the excitement and excitement of what would happen.

However, a few months later, the ship on the Udaka route is filled with the opposite feeling. An event during my return to school using my first summer vacation as a college student. When I arrived all the way from Tokyo to Uno Port and boarded a boat heading to Takamatsu Port, I saw the Seto Inland Sea islands, and my tears began to overflow. He says that his memories are still unforgettable.

(Kenji Oyama)
"There was always a Udaka route at a milestone in my life."

Run to paper tape ship on honeymoon

I met a group of women who talked about the liveliness of the Utaka route at the time.

A group of seven people, including Akemi Miyamoto, who lives in Tamano City, Okayama Prefecture, traveled from Tamano City to a high school in Takamatsu City on a Utaka route from the late 1950s to the early 1940s.

At that time, I was often together with my married couple on a honeymoon. When there was such a couple, a paper tape was thrown toward the sea at the time of departure, and it was a very lively sight.

He also talked about this episode with Nico Nico.

"At Takamatsu Station and Uno Station, a lot of people are running at speed with boats. We were trying to secure seats on the boats. We wanted to sit down, so those who got on the boat first Laid a bag and secured a friend's seat to cooperate. ''

In the beginning of employment

For some, the Udaka route has triggered employment.

Mikio Hagiwara of Takamatsu City has been the captain of a former Japanese National Railways ferry for over 10 years since 1976.

I decided to pursue a job at the sea because I was impressed by the scenery of the Seto Inland Sea seen from a ship on the Udaka Route during high school.

I became captain when there were the most boats on the Udaka route.

(Mikio Hagiwara)
"At the time of the captain, the frustration that the train to contact had to arrive at the port before departure and the desire to never cause an accident. After retirement, regular customers said, We formed Shinobu-kai and we had a good time drinking, traveling and having fun together. ''

Because of pride and regular customers

It was the opening of the Seto Ohashi Bridge in 1988 that changed the environment surrounding the Udaka route. JR Shikoku, private companies withdraw from the route one after another.

Then, since October 2012, the Shikoku Express Ferry, which was the only operating company, ceased operation last month, and the Udaka route has been closed to more than a century of history.

The company had been considering suspending operations since 2013 due to the worsening performance of the route, but he said the reason why he continued to operate after that.

(Shikoku Express Ferry Chairman Satoshi Horikawa)
"Because of the pride and patronage that supported Shikoku's economy, he said that he was happy to relax by eating udon sold on board, especially if he met him at Takamatsu Port. I was very happy. I think that I was able to continue until the last year of Heisei and the first year of Reiwa because of such customers. "

I boarded and tried udon

If you think about it, the Seto Ohashi Bridge will be built, and tolls will go down after that, making it much easier to travel between Shikoku and Honshu.

Still, why did the people I met during the interview tell us so much about the memories of the Udaka route?

With that in mind, I took the Udaka route ferry on the 12th of last month, three days before the suspension. And I ate the udon sold on the ship since the Showa 40's.

While watching the beautiful scenery of the Seto Inland Sea spreading in front of you, the udon with seaweed, fox, toro and egg is delicious, and while you do not know how many people have eaten this udon so far I was thinking.

It was only about an hour to Uno Port on board, but I had never set foot in Shikoku until last year when I was 29, when I was assigned to NHK Takamatsu Broadcasting Station. I came to feel a special weight.

Enrollment, employment, honeymoon, family trip ... There was a time when many people in Shikoku tried to go to Honshu at the milestone of their life, and there was the Udaka route there. This route, which has been relied on and loved by many people, will surely continue to live in people's memories forever.

Taichi Yokoyama, reporter of Takamatsu Broadcasting Station Entered in 2013. After working at Toyama Broadcasting Station and Kofu Broadcasting Station, Takamatsu Broadcasting Station last year. I am from Kunitachi-shi, Tokyo.