ガス燈の記念碑

There is a “Gas Pass” that gently emits soft light on the promenade on the north side of the Hamamatsu Station North Exit and the New Building of the Endetsu Department Store. There are many people who pass by without worrying about it, but the time when “Gas Samurai” was active with a retro design with a very atmospheric atmosphere. At night, the area around the north exit of Hamamatsu Station is very bright and is surrounded by glittering neon lights and LED lights, but the soft light naturally softens the heart. By the way, the first Western-style gas lamp was lit in Japan in 1871 (Meiji 4), and it was the first time that it was lit as a street light around the Osaka Mint. The early period of the Meiji period was called “civilization,” when Western culture rapidly entered Japan due to the new government policy, and people's lives changed drastically. Speaking of the night lights until then, it was candles and lanterns (andons), so the luminosity of `` Gas 燈 '' is regarded as one of the symbols of civilization opening up one after another. I increased it. In 1872 (Meiji 5), 86 gas lamps shine as street lights on the foreign settlements in Yokohama, and on the next year in 1873 (Meiji 6) on Ginza Street in Tokyo It was. It was in 1910 (Meiji 43) that a gas mist appeared on the Hamamatsu station square. The people at that time would have been excited by the light of the gas lamp that brightly illuminates the surrounding area, and felt the wave of civilization. At that time, when it was nightfall, a lit husband (an employee of a gas company) with a stepladder lit a gas tank on the street corner while adding a match to his mouth, and the next morning he was running off. . On rainy days and windy days, there was a lot of hard work in the work of keeping the gas lamps on. At present, gas tanks are rarely seen due to the development of light bulbs. If you can see it, most of them are gas tanks that have been used as items of cityscapes or restored and newly built by retro booms. This gas tank at the north exit of Hamamatsu Station was also restored and installed in 1990 as part of the peripheral maintenance business accompanying the elevated Hamamatsu Station. Today, our lives have evolved so much that we couldn't imagine from the days of gas fires, and we are entering an era where artificial intelligence (AI) is active. However, I don't want to forget about the hard work of the lit husband who ignited the gas lamp at the street corner, but that our lives are based on the accumulation of such hard work and efforts of our predecessors. That is. In any era, I think the hard work and efforts of our predecessors are bigger than we can imagine. It is important for us to appreciate and appreciate the hard work and efforts of our predecessors. Although it is a little exaggerated, it feels as if the gentle and soft light emitted by the “gas moth” is telling us that.