イタリア産天然溶岩石を使った溶岩ホットヨガスタジオ「オンザショア」

イタリア産天然溶岩石を使った溶岩ホットヨガスタジオ「オンザショア」

Tachikawa Aviation Shrine History: The First ‘Tokyo Airfield’ Walk

北の上空から見た立川飛行場とその奥に広がる基地跡地の緑2023年 立川駅徒歩1分年中無休の溶岩ホットヨガスタジオ

What does the shrine in the corner of the car park pray for?

Why is a sky shrine in the corner of a car park?

Half of what I found out is this. The shrine was originally a Tenjin enshrined by an old Tachikawa family to protect its own house. Not a big shrine: a household god. Then the airfield came, the age of the sky came, and the townspeople and the army entrusted to that household god the people who had fallen from the sky. When the war ended, the name changed to Sun. Even when the house became a car park, the shrine stayed in roughly the same place. The household god did not leave the household’s land. It sits in a corner, I suspect, not because it was pushed aside but because it was always a shrine of that size.

The other half is my own reading. The Shinbashi Aviation Shrine is on a rooftop; the Tokorozawa one came home after many moves; the Flight Shrine in Kyoto enshrines victims from all over the world. Each is a shrine that “takes in” the aviation dead somewhere. Only the Tachikawa shrine is a little different. Here, the sky’s victims were placed right next to the airfield, right next to everyday life. Outside the end of the runway, between houses and fields. The people enshrined there were directly beneath the sky they had flown in.

Tachikawa’s sky is still flying. Fire and police helicopters take off, formations fly on air-show day, and every autumn young people run on the runway. The little shrine that changed its name looks up at it all from a corner of a car park. If a shrine had eyes, what it would see best, I imagine, is today’s Tachikawa sky.

The other half of the answer is not in my hands. I have not yet read the original 1941 book, nor any record of the renaming to Sun Shrine. Tachikawa’s library has a shelf of materials collected on the airfield. Someday, in front of that shelf, I hope to check the rest of the story.

There is no need to go looking for this shrine. Ride the Chuo Line for about thirty minutes from Shinjuku, get off at Tachikawa, walk the outer edge of the park built on the old airfield, and look up at the sky now and then. The sky that called itself “Tokyo” before Haneda did is right there.

Answer to the detour quiz

The answer is B, Tokyo Airfield. According to Wikipedia’s article on Tachikawa Airfield, on 1 April 1929, when Japan Air Transport began scheduled flights, the Tachikawa airfield became “Tokyo Airfield” by notice of the Ministry of Communications. When Haneda Airfield opened on 24 August 1931, the name moved to Haneda along with Japan Air Transport. Before Haneda, Tachikawa was Tokyo’s gateway to the sky.

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Before you go

  • Getting there: about 30 minutes from Shinjuku on the JR Chuo Line (according to a leaflet from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s Bureau of Environment), and 40 minutes from Tokyo Station by Special Rapid (according to Tachikawa City). From Kanagawa, the JR Nambu Line links Kawasaki Station with Tachikawa Station, so you can come from Kawasaki without changing trains. Check times on the day’s timetable. Carry an IC card such as Suica or PASMO to save buying tickets each time.
  • The little shrine said to be the Aviation Shrine (Sun Shrine): several records place it in Akebonocho 1-chome, Tachikawa, on the south side of Showa Kinen Park, but it stands inside a private family’s car park, with no information board and no public invitation to worship. This article gives no directions. Please do not enter private land. If you walk nearby, keep to looking up at the sky from the pavement around the park.
  • To learn the airfield’s history: the Tachikawa Museum of History and Folklore (3-12-34 Fujimi-cho, Tachikawa). A 20-minute walk from Nishi-Tachikawa Station on the JR Ome Line. Or from the South Exit of JR Tachikawa Station, take a bus bound for “Shindo Fukushima” or “Fujimicho Soshajo,” get off at “Danchi Nishi,” and walk 5 minutes (according to Tachikawa City). Admission is free. Check opening hours and closing days on the official page: https://www.city.tachikawa.lg.jp/kanko/bunka/1004244/1004849/1004905.html
  • To walk the old airfield: Tachikawa City’s walking course “Walking the Modern Era” goes from the North Exit of Tachikawa Station past the site of the main gate of the army’s 5th Air Regiment and Sakae Ryokuchi, a green strip on the old branch rail line of the Tachikawa Aircraft company (page in Japanese): https://www.city.tachikawa.lg.jp/kanko/bunka/1004244/1004848/1004891.html
  • To pray at a sky shrine: the Shinbashi Aviation Shrine is on the 9th floor (roof) of the Aviation Building, 1-18-1 Shinbashi, Minato-ku, Tokyo. Visiting hours are 9:00–19:00 on weekdays and 9:00–17:00 on weekends and public holidays, with times when you cannot visit over the New Year holidays and on festival days (according to the Japan Aeronautic Association). Check the latest on the official site: https://www.aero.or.jp/shrine/
  • The Tokorozawa Aviation Shrine is inside Kitano Tenjinja, Kotesashi-Motomachi, Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture: https://kitanotenjin.com/kouku.html
  • Dates of the Camp Tachikawa air show and the Hakone Ekiden qualifier change every year. Check announcements from Camp Tachikawa and the organisers.
  • Combine it with: from the North Exit of Tachikawa Station it is about a 10-minute walk to the park’s Akebono Gate, where you can walk Showa Kinen Park, a national government park built on the old airfield. By the North Exit are the 109 artworks of Faret Tachikawa, born on former base land, and a ride north on the monorail takes you to Tachihi, the district of the company that once built aircraft. Each has its own episode in this series.
立川駅徒歩1分年中無休の溶岩ホットヨガスタジオ

After looking up at the sky: the North Exit of Tachikawa Station

Chase sky stories all day and your neck starts to set with your face pointing upward. Walk the outer edge of the park on the old airfield and your legs get tired too. If you want to loosen up before heading home, On the Shore Tachikawa (オンザショア立川店) is a 1-minute walk from the North Exit of Tachikawa Station, on the 3rd floor of the Etoile Building, 2-14-10 Akebonocho, Tachikawa, Tokyo. It is in the same Akebonocho as the little shrine, at the end nearer the station.

It is a lava-stone hot yoga studio, where you practise yoga in a room heated with lava stones. It also offers room-temperature yoga, Pilates, women-only kickboxercise, boxercise, HIIT and personal training, with more than 25 kinds of yoga lessons.

It is open every day, 8:00 to 23:30, with the same hours whatever the day. You can come in after a morning walk in the park, or drop by in the evening after watching the helicopters fly back to base.

For first-timers there is a trial yoga lesson for ¥1,980 (tax included), with two bath towels, one face towel and a mat rental included. Pregnant guests cannot join lava-stone hot yoga, but room-temperature maternity yoga is available. Many of our yoga instructors speak English, and the studio’s owner, Naomi Fujita, who holds Japan’s top English qualification (Eiken Grade 1) and a perfect TOEIC score and once worked as a translator and overseas interpreter at Nomura Securities, and who lived in Alaska for three years, often helps guests from the US bases in English herself (visitors from abroad have even left Google reviews about the care they received in English); if you would like an English-friendly lesson, just say so when you book.

  • On the Shore: https://ontheshore.jp/
  • Trial lesson booking: https://site.locaop.jp/C0aVK?_src=hp

Over the road back to the station, a helicopter that has risen from the runway to the west crosses eastward, leaving a low sound behind it.

Cover photo: Tachikawa Airfield from the air in 2023, its runway ringed by green space and city streets (Photo: ブルーノ・プラス / CC BY-SA 4.0 / Wikimedia Commons)

Information as of October 2026.

More Tachikawa Walks

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