Aerial cable car, Taisho Exhibition, Ueno Park, Tokyo, 1914, its first appearance in Japan. The ropeway was temporarily erected over Shinobazu Pond on the Ueno Park exhibition grounds to demonstrate the new transport technology. The oldest surviving commercial aerial cable car in Japan, in operation since in 1929, still runs today at Mt. Yoshino, Nara.
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Taisho Exhibition, Ueno Park, 1914.
Rope-way Station & Hotel, Mt. Rokko, Kobe, c. 1935.
“One of the first mentions of a ropeway is in the Japanese history, Taiheiki (Chronicle of Great Peace, ca. late 14th century). It relates how an Emperor of Japan escaped over a precipitous valley about 650 years ago when surrounded by enemy forces.
“The conveyance was a suspended basket platform, allowing him to carry a few possessions, which was pulled across the valley by rope. The oriental historian called this rude transfer mechanism the ‘yaen’ or ‘wild monkey’.”
– Elevator World, October 1967