Ratjen Street in Chigasaki City

There is a street called Rachien-dori (ラチエン通り) in Chigasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, running north to south toward Chigasaki Beach between National Route 1 and National Route 134.  It was originally the boundary between Kowada Village and Chigasaki Village during the Edo period and became a street during the early days of the Showa period.

The street name translates to "Ratjen Street" where Rachien is the romanized form of ラチエン, the Japanese spelling for Ratjen.  The name comes from Rudolf Ratjen (1881 ~ 1947), a German businessman from Hannover, who owned a villa that once stood along the street.

Takao Doi's handprint

Ratjen was working for a company selling soda water* when he came to Japan in 1902.  He married Asao Doi (1893 ~ 1985), a relative of Takao Doi who went on board Space Shuttle Columbia in 1997 and Space Shuttle Endeavour in 2008 as a STS-123 crew member.  Takao Doi's handprint is on display outside the North Entrance of Chigasaki Station.  In 1911, Ratjen started an import business of German goods in Tokyo.  Among the products were 2 Mercedes-Benz that went to the Japanese Imperial Family.  He had a villa in the Kugenuma District in Fujisawa, but after the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923, he decided to look for an larger area in Chigasaki where he later purchased a vast amount of land in the Matsugaoka District.  During the Bombing of Tokyo during World War II, his office building burned down forcing him and his wife to move to his villa in Chigasaki.  After the war, the main building of his villa and most of his assets were seized by the Occupation Forces forcing him to live in a small cottage close by.  He died in 1947 at the age of 68.  Part of where his villa used to stand is now organized as the Matsugaoka Rachien-dori Park (松が丘ラチエン通り公園).

Eboshi-iwa from Rachien-dori

Eboshi-iwa from Chigasaki Beach

Rachien-dori is known for being able to see Eboshi-iwa (えぼし岩), a 14.6-meter rock standing about 1.4 km off the coast of Chigasaki.  While Eboshi-iwa is closer to Chigasaki Beach than Rachien-dori, the trees and the buildings may make the rock look larger when looking at it from the street than from the beach.  This illusion is known as "Obake-Eboshi (お化けえぼし)" where obake (お化け) means ghost.

Takeshi Kaiko Memorial House

Takeshi Kaiko (aka Ken Kaiko) (1930 ~ 1989), one of the prominent Japanese novelists of the post-World War II period, spent his later years in Chigasaki.  His house stands along Rachien-dori and is now renovated into a museum named the Takeshi Kaiko Memorial House (開高健記念館).  In February 2015, the Chigasaki People's Museum (茅ヶ崎ゆかりの人物館) opened next to the house.

The street name also appears in one of the songs of the prominent Japanese band, Southern All Stars.

* According to the Facebook page of the Chigasaki People's Museum, Ratjen was working for Charles de la Camp, a company selling raxa cloths, at the time he came to Japan.