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The picture book " I Took the Blue Train " is the 14th volume of the "Kumata-kun Picture Book" series, written by the late Shigeo Watanabe and illustrated by the late Yasuo Otomo. The story tells of Kumata-kun and his son riding on the "Blue Train," a sleeper express train that was once in operation.
The author's father and his grandfather were both train enthusiasts, and before he knew it, he too had become a train enthusiast. There was no way that the author wouldn't love this picture book, and he read it many times as a child. What's more, he still owns the exact book he read it to his daughters, who sometimes ask him to read it to them
"I Took the Blue Train" first edition (January 1988) owned by the author
In this article, I will share what I noticed and thought after re-reading this picture book from an adult's perspective. *Please note that although there are many statements to the effect that it is "different from reality," I am simply clarifying the fact that it is different and have no intention of criticizing it.
The story of "I rode on the Blue Train"
I will give you an outline of the story of " I Took the Blue Train
Kumata-kun, his father, and his mother decided to go on a trip using the Blue Train ticket that his father had secured. By the way, the "Blue Train" was the nickname for the overnight trains and sleeper trains that ran with blue passenger cars
Kumata's family goes to Kumano Station and waits for the Blue Train to arrive. In each scene, when they are waiting at home at night, when Dad comes home in the evening, when they arrive at Kumano Station, and when the Blue Train pulls in, Kumata's impatience to board the Blue Train is depicted. I was one of those children, so I can understand how he feels
Finally, the Blue Train "Mangetsu" arrives at the platform of Kumano Station, and the Kumata family boards the B-class sleeping car, which has two sets of bunk beds facing each other. There, they spread out their bento boxes, beer, tea, fruit, and sweets, and begin their meal
After eating, Kumata brushes his teeth and goes to the toilet, then tries to sleep on the top bunk of the bed, but has trouble falling asleep. This is to be expected when sleeping alone in a swaying train
However, Mata-kun seems to have managed to sleep somehow, and wakes up feeling refreshed in the morning. The train arrives at its final stop, Kumamori Station, and the journey on the Blue Train Full Moon comes to an end, and the story of this work comes to an end
The previous volume, volume 13, "I Got on the Train," tells the story of a family getting off the sleeper express Mangetsu at Kumamori and boarding the train to head to Kumadate on the Kumakaido. It would be natural to interpret this work as a prequel to the previous work. It seems likely that the Kumata-kun family's journey continues even after they arrive at Kumamori Station. We have already written an article about the previous work, so please take a look.
Incidentally, the last time I rode the Blue Train was during the summer vacation of 1996, on the sleeper express " Seto " (departing from Tokyo and heading to Takamatsu). My family had already decided to go to Shikoku, but the main reason I begged my parents to take the Blue Train was, naturally, the existence of this work.
What is the destination and name of the sleeper express "Mangetsu" bound for Kumamori?
Ueno Station in Tokyo and Aomori Station . In particular, the ferry that appeared in the previous work, which depicted a boat trip from Kumamori to Kumadate, was clearly modeled after the Seikan Ferry that connected Aomori Station and Hakodate Station, so it is safe to assume that Kumamori Station in this work also refers to Aomori Station.
There is no definite proof that Kumano Station corresponds to Ueno Station, but among the starting stations for the major sleeper express trains bound for Aomori, Ueno Station should be the only station with the character "no" in its name. It is reasonable to assume that it is Ueno Station. This means that the Full Moon train corresponds to the "night train departing from Ueno (bound for Aomori)" that
This work was published in January 1988 (less than a year after the Japanese National Railways was dissolved and the various JR companies were established), but I do not have a timetable from that time, so I will look at a timetable from November 1986, the closest time before January 1988. We can see that there were three sleeper express trains called Yuzuru ," " Hakutsuru ," and " Akebono
Sleeper Express "Akebono"
By the way, the route you will take is
Yuzuru : Joban Line/Tohoku Main Line (Main stations: Mito, Sendai, Morioka, Hachinohe)
Hakutsuru : Tohoku Main Line (Main stations: Omiya, Utsunomiya, Sendai, Morioka, Hachinohe)
Akebono : Tohoku Main Line/Ou Main Line (Main stations: Omiya, Utsunomiya, Fukushima, Yamagata, Akita, Odate, Hirosaki, Aomori)
And it was all different
Although three "Yuzuru" and two "Hakutsuru" trains were operated per day, "Yuzuru No. 1" and the two "Hakutsuru" trains were not Blue Trains, which are locomotives pulling passenger cars, but rather were trains using the 583 series electric train
583 series train sleeper express "Hakutsuru"
All three Akebono trains per day are Blue Trains, but the third, No. 5, stops at Akita Station and does not go to Aomori Station. This means that the trains equivalent to the Full Moon are either Yuuzuru No. 3 or No. 5, or Akebono No. 1 or No. 3
It should be noted that there is no evidence that a train called the Full Moon ever existed , so the origin of the name is unknown. The name of the overnight train that departed Ueno and headed for Aomori at the time was as mentioned above, and it does not appear to have any connection to the full moon.
Also, among the names of trains that actually existed in the past, there are few names related to the moon, such as "Moonlight" and "Evening Moon" (though there are quite a few trains with names related to celestial bodies, such as "Venus," "Galaxy," "Subaru," "Comet," and "Myojo")
Since the name does not identify the train that served as the model for the Full Moon, doIalwaysdo and identify the train by looking at the clocks and other depictions in the work... but even if I did that, I would not be able to identify which night train departing from Ueno. This is because it is highly likely that is not modeled after the actual "night train departing from Ueno and bound for Aomori." *As stated at the beginning of this article, I have no intention of criticizing this.
Isn't the depiction of the Full Moon train based on the overnight train departing from Ueno and bound for Aomori?
There are several points in the illustrations of the Blue Train Full Moon in this work (and at the beginning of the previous work) that do not make sense as an illustration of a Blue Train departing from Ueno and bound for Aomori
First, here a depiction of Kumano Station . The Blue Train Mangetsu arrives at platform 10 at Kumano Station. However, in reality, platform 10 at Ueno Station is the platform for the Joban Line , and this is not the platform where the sleeper express trains depart and arrive.
The platform at Ueno Station, where the sleeper express trains actually arrive and depart, is a dead-end, and the appearance of the platform is quite different from the picture in this work. And because it is a dead-end platform, the Blue Train must change direction when it enters the platform at Ueno Station, but in order to change direction, it is not possible to move the locomotive to the Aomori-bound side of the passenger carriages (a process called turning around) because it is a dead-end
When entering the station, the locomotive had to be at the very back and back up. The Blue Train departing from Ueno never entered with the locomotive at the front as depicted in the story . However, it cannot be denied that it would be very strange for the Blue Train to enter by backing up in this story. That is why Kumano Station is depicted differently from the actual Ueno Station.
was pulled by EF65 electric locomotive No. 1098 all the way from its starting point at Kumano Station to its final destination at Kumamori Station
The actual EF65 was manufactured in 1978, and after the dissolution of the Japanese National Railways, it was inherited by JR East, where it was mainly used to pull night trains on the Tokaido Main Line and Sanyo Main Line. And, this is a very important point: the EF65 cannot go to Aomori Station .
Electric locomotives are powered by two main types of electricity: direct current and alternating current, and the EF65 is a locomotive that only runs on direct current . No matter which route you take from Ueno Station to Aomori Station, the power source changes from direct current to alternating current along the way, so it's impossible for the EF65 to pull the Blue Train all the way to Aomori Station.
However, it is possible to use the EF65 if the baton is handed over to an AC-compatible electric locomotive along the way. In fact, until 1993, the Akebono was pulled by an EF65 from Ueno Station to Kuroiso Station in Tochigi Prefecture
So, what was Kumano Station and the Full Moon train modeled after?
First of all, based on the fact that the Blue Train departs from Platform 10, the depiction of the platform, and the appearance of trains other than the Blue Train, the depiction of Kumano Station is modeled after Tokyo Station. Blue Trains that travel west from Tokyo Station on the Tokaido Main Line include the sleeper express "Izumo" and "Seto" and the sleeper express "Ginga," which are pulled by EF65s.
However, even if Kumano Station is modeled after Tokyo Station, there are some inconsistencies with reality
The Blue Train departing from Tokyo Station is also pulled by a locomotive from the depot to Tokyo Station, then changes direction at Tokyo Station before departing. To change direction, the locomotive that pulled the passenger cars when entering the station is turned around to the opposite side of the passenger cars (Osaka/Kyushu side) and coupled to the train before departing (*). Only after the change is made can the headmark with the train's name appear on the front of the train . The Full Moon in this work enters Kumano Station immediately with its headmark showing, so it differs from the depiction of an actual Blue Train entering Tokyo Station. *Since around 1988, the track for turning the train around was no longer available, so a measure was taken to couple a different locomotive to the Osaka side of the passenger cars from the one that pulled it to Tokyo Station and depart for Osaka.
Train turning around at Tokyo Station
However, this is not a major contradiction. This is a fictional story, and it is easy to imagine that they did not bother to faithfully depict something as insignificant in the story as the locomotive turning around
Running Diesel Train Dede, published in 2013 and based on an actual freight train, the depiction of the train changing direction and turning around at Aizu-Wakamatsu Station in Fukushima Prefecture was omitted.
As the Mangetsugo train pulled into Kumano Station, the clock hands pointed to 6:24 AM (which, of course, was 6:24 PM in railway terms, since it was night). This was exactly the time when the Blue Trains heading west from Tokyo Station were departing one after another.
According to the timetable, been no Blue Trains on the platform at Tokyo Station at around 6:24 PMIzumo No. 1 which entered platform 9 at 6:30 PM pulled by an EF65 and departed at 6:50 PM . Also, prior to March 1985, the " Fuji (bound for Miyazaki)," " Asakaze No. 1 (bound for Hakata in Fukuoka Prefecture)," and " Asakaze No. 3 (bound for Shimonoseki in Yamaguchi Prefecture)" all departed Tokyo Station in the 6 PM hour, all pulled by an EF65. It's likely that the Blue Train in this work was modeled after these trains.
There were no sleeper express trains departing Ueno Station between 6 PM and 18 PM, so it is highly likely that the depiction of Kumano Station was not modeled after Ueno Station
It's 1988, but there's an assistant engineer on board?
It appears that there are always two bears on duty in the crew cabin of the EF65 that pulls the Full Moon
In reality, the person on the left side of the train (the right side when facing the train) is the engineer, who actually drives the train. The person on the right side of the train is the assistant engineer, who does not drive the train but instead supports the engineer.
In the days when steam locomotives (SL) were in operation, the assistant engineer was an essential member of the workforce, as the operation of a steam locomotive required putting coal into the firebox, a task that the engineer could not have performed while driving
As a remnant of the time when assistant engineers worked on steam locomotives, assistant engineers also worked on electric locomotives for a while after they were introduced. In the film "The Swallow Movers, " released in 1954, we can see the work of assistant engineers on both electric and steam locomotives.
However, since electric locomotives do not require the use of coal, the duties of the engineer's assistant were significantly reduced compared to steam locomotives. The engineer's assistant on electric locomotives was targeted for abolition, and in 1969, the labor union of JNR employees staged a strike against the abolition of the engineer's assistant position. Reference: 1970 Transportation White Paper (4 Labor Issues)
The author was unable to find information on when the position of electric locomotive assistant engineer was officially abolished, but it is unlikely that electric locomotive assistant engineers would still be around in 1988, when the Japanese National Railways was already disbanded . Furthermore, as far as the author knows, the uniform caps worn by the bear crew members appear to date back to the days of the Japanese National Railways (and the JR name clearly appears in the picture of the station ticket office on the first page of this work and in the logo on the side of the locomotive).
However, in the world of this work, electric locomotives still have assistant engineers on board, so we can simply interpret this as meaning that the uniform caps are in the style of those worn by the real Japan National Railways
A mysterious train that passed the Blue Train
For me even more mysterious than the true identity of the Full Moon Trainthe train that passed by the Blue Train after I woke up in the morning inside the .
From the design of the train depicted, it appears to be an old train, even at the time, and was called an old national railway
The Blue Train going from Ueno Station to Aomori Station should already be in the Tohoku region by morning, but because the old national railway trains, like the EF65, are only compatible with DC electricity, they will not pass any sleeper express trains in the Tohoku region. Also, the picture shows the train as being long, with more than seven cars, which is also quite strange for a regional train running in the Tohoku region
The old-style national electric trains were mainly used in the major cities of the Tokyo and Kansai regions, and later moved to local lines in the Chubu and Chugoku regions. However, by 1988, the old-style national electric trains had almost disappeared even on local lines, and the long train formations depicted in this work in particular would have long since become extinct
We can only imagine why such a picture was drawn, but I think it was probably chosen as the train to appear in this scene because the old national railway was a typical train that ran on local lines for many years. The photograph used as reference for the drawing was probably from the time when the old national railway ran in long formations in metropolitan areas
in conclusion
I have expressed various opinions, mainly pointing out that the story is different from reality, but this does not change the fact that this is still one of my favorite picture books .
It's a shame that there are no more Blue Trains in Japan, and there are very few other night trains, so it's difficult to give my daughters an exciting experience like Kumata-kun's. Fortunately, however, there are clear signs of a comeback in recent years, as evidenced by the announcement of a new overnight express train connecting the Tokyo metropolitan area and the Tohoku region
![Mashumaru](data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAJYAAACWAQAAAAAUekxPAAAAAnRSTlMAAHaTzTgAAAAaSURBVEjH7cExAQAAAMKg9U9tDQ+gAACAdwMLuAABXZHjmQAAAABJRU5ErkJggg== "I read the picture book "I Got on the Train" [Aomori Prefecture]")
![Mashumaru](https://jp.neft.asia/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/2244492_s-150x150.jpg.webp "I read the picture book "I Got on the Train" [Aomori Prefecture]")
![Oga_Kaya2113_Oga_19840806](https://jp.neft.asia/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Oga_Kaya2113_Oga_19840806-150x150.jpg.webp "The trail of the express train "Oga" that was connected to Ueno and Akita, which had a strong demand [Akita Prefecture]")
