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Question How to find old Japanese address?

gerca

Registered
12 May 2020
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Dear community,

In the Koseki's of my wife, there are a lot of adresses of her ancestries, most in Kagoshima, and between 1900 - 1960.

For us living in Switzerland and not understanding japanese: give it a possibility to look for adresses in english on a map?
And it's very difficult to find even the villages. Bonotsu we so is merged with other towns to Minamisatsuma, Kawabe-mura to Minamikyushu and so on.. and how we understand there aren't streets in the most cases block-systems.
Do you have tipps, or tipps which kind of expert we have to ask?

thank you for your help.

Carsten

Our old family-adresse
- Kagoshima-ken, kawabe-gun,kawabe-mura, hirayama 6621
- Tokyo-to, Suginami-ku, Asagaya,4-916
- Kagoshima-ken, Kawabe-gun, Hirayama-mura
- Kagoshima-ken, Kawabe-gun, Kawabe-mura, Simizu
- Kawabe-gun, Nishiminamikata-mura, bou, 594
- 590 Minamikata Gobo-village Kawabe-gun Kawabe-gun Kagoshima-prefecture
- Bo-village Kawabe-gun Kagoshima-prefecture
 
If I write my address in Tokyo (in English) in Google Maps it finds my house immediately.
Have you tried Google maps with say, 4-916 Asagaya?
 
Lothor said:
If I write my address in Tokyo (in English) in Google Maps it finds my house immediately.
Have you tried Google maps with say, 4-916 Asagaya?

4-916 Asagaya (阿佐ヶ谷4-916) is not going to be a modern address.

These days, Asagaya addresses are split up into 阿佐ヶ谷北 (Asagaya-kita, North Asagaya) and 阿佐ヶ谷南 (Asagaya-minami, South Asagaya), and it's not going to be possible to find out where the original 4-XXX Asagaya (i.e. 阿佐ヶ谷4丁目, Asagaya 4-chome/Asagaya district #4) was without looking at a historical map or some document explaining the realignment. I did a quick search and wasn't able to turn up anything definitive.

In some cases, it may be easier to find the more rural non-Tokyo addresses, as despite mergers of towns and cities, etc., many of the original place names and designations remain the same:

i.e. There's good reason to believe that Kagoshima-ken, kawabe-gun,kawabe-mura, hirayama 6621 (鹿児島県川辺郡川辺村平山6621) is the modern day Kagoshima-ken, Minami-kyushu-shi, Kawabe-cho, Hirayama 6621 (鹿児島県南九州市川辺町平山6621):


Hopefully this will start you off. I'll try to look a bit more into the others when I have time.
 
Wikipedia has pages of a list of mergers in each prefecture. Here's the one for Kagoshima prefecture. (The Japanese version has more detailed information.)

For instance, 鹿児島県川辺郡川辺村平山 Kagoshima-ken, Kawanabe-gun, Kawanabe-mura, Hirayama is the present 鹿児島県南九州市川辺町平山 Kagoshima-ken, Minamikyūshū-shi, Kawanabe-chō, Hirayama.

There is an address 鹿児島県南九州市川辺町平山6621-4 Kagoshima-ken, Minamikyūshū-shi, Kawanabe-chō, Hirayama 6621‐4. This doesn't guarantee that this Kawanabe-chō, Hirayama 6621 is the same address as Kawanabe-mura, Hirayama 6621. Anyway, you can see a flower shop on google map. That's Hirayama 6621‐4.

EDIT:
Ooops! I didn't realize that bentenmusume-san already provided the same map!
 
Hello Carsten,
I found a historical map of a section of Tokyo from 1932 that shows Asagaya 4-916.

As Bentenmusume suggests, Asagaya 4 became part of what is now Asagaya-kita, and I'm guessing the location of your relatives' house was somewhere behind where Suginami Dai-ichi Elementary School now is, or maybe near where Kawakita Hospital is. Anyway, its close to Asagaya station. I'm assuming Asagaya train station has not moved in 90 years, which may be a very loose assumption. In any event, Asagaya 4-916 looks to be a short walk from Asagaya station.

Asagaya pinpoint.jpg
 
Great find, Majestic-san! These old maps (especially of areas I've lived or spent considerable time in, like Asagaya) really fascinate me.
It's interesting to see just how close the street layout is to the modern day.

(Incidentally, it doesn't seem that Asagaya Station has "moved" at all, either, other than slight displacements that might come from expansion and renovation.)
 
- Kawabe-gun, Nishiminamikata-mura, bou, 594
川辺郡西南方村大字坊 Kawanabe-gun, Nishiminamikata-mura, Ōaza-Bō is the present 南さつま市坊津町坊 Minamisatsuma-shi, Bōnotsu-chō, Bō.

坊津町坊5941 and 5942 Bōnotsu-chō, Bō 5941 and 5942 exist, but this might not be the same as Nishiminamikata-mura, Ōaza-Bō 594.

bou 594.jpg


- 590 Minamikata Gobo-village Kawabe-gun Kawabe-gun Kagoshima-prefecture
I can't find that address. Isn't it 南方郷坊村 in kanji, perhaps? If so, it's Minamikata-gō, Bō-mura/village.
 
Dear community,

I and my wife are overwhelmed by your help!
I thought I would get some tips, but both the list with the merged communities, as well as the historical maps and of course most of all, the help in finding the address.

Much more than we expected, thank you very much. For us this means a lot. The first generation of emigrants had maintained contact with their old homeland, but already in the 2nd generation the connection was lost and so we gradually get a picture.

Ps. Concerning Kanji-Spelling I will have a look at the Koseki's.
 
@Toritoribe
"I can't find that address. Isn't it 南方郷坊村 in kanji, perhaps? If so, it's Minamikata-gō, Bō-mura/village."

Hi Toritoribe,
We consult the Koseki of my wifes great-great-grandfather.. But it's a very old Kanji and so we assume it's to difficult to say, what it means. And even so, so long time ago, maybe the street-system changed.

But we thank again a lot for all the community-help!
 

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The address written there is 鹿児島縣川邊郡南方郷坊村五百九拾四番, i.e., 鹿児島県川辺郡南方郷坊村五百九十四番 Kagoshima-ken, Kawanabe-gun, Minamikata-gō, Bō-mura 594 in modern kanji. (The English translation is simply wrong.) Minamikata-gō Bō-mura is an old name of Nishiminamikata-mura, Ōaza-Bō, so the address written there is completely the same address as Kawanabe-gun, Nishiminamikata-mura, bou, 594.

- Kagoshima-ken, Kawanabe-gun, Kawanabe-mura, Hirayama
- Kagoshima-ken, Kawanabe-gun, Hirayama-mura

the present address
鹿児島県南九州市川辺町平山
Kagoshima-ken, Minamikyūshū-shi, Kawanabe-chō, Hirayama

- Kagoshima-ken, Kawanabe-gun, Kawanabe-mura, Kiyomizu
the present address
鹿児島県南九州市川辺町清水
Kagoshima-ken, Minamikyūshū-shi, Kawanabe-chō, Kiyomizu

- Kawanabe-gun, Nishiminamikata-mura, bou
- Minamikata-gō Bō-mura Kawanabe-gun Kagoshima-prefecture
- Bo-village Kawanabe-gun Kagoshima-prefecture

the present address
鹿児島県南さつま市坊津町坊
Kagoshima-ken, Minamisatsuma-shi, Bōnotsu-chō, Bō
 
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