Once a villa district, now a quiet residential area where writers settled; the station front is a ramen battleground
The closest neighborhoods in the same city.
Ogikubo was a villa resort area near Tokyo from the Taisho era into the early Showa era, and back then people used to say "Kamakura in the west, Ogikubo in the east". Writers and artists moved in one after another, and ever since, this area has been known as a quiet residential area—though the area in front of the station is famously a fierce ramen battleground. A 7-minute walk from the north exit, in Kamiogi 1-chome, the Suginami Public Hall is the home base of the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra.
The hall has 1,190 seats, designed for classical concerts; the City's coming-of-age ceremonies and school graduation ceremonies are also held here. The local area supports classical music, and concerts are held here often.
The station is served by the JR Chuo Line Rapid and Local, and the Marunouchi Line also terminates here. The commercial building at the north exit has a supermarket, and an underground passage leads directly to the subway station.
Seeing a doctor and getting medicine ranks at the very top for this neighborhood—healthcare ranks 157th out of 395 neighborhoods in Tokyo.
Just south of this neighborhood are three gardens converted from former residences: Tekigaiso Park, Otaguro Park, and Kadokawa Garden.
In 2020, about 203 people lived per hectare in this neighborhood. The south exit has no station plaza, the streets are narrow and prone to traffic jams, and crossing the street requires guidance from security guards.
Judging from our street photos, sidewalks rank 336th out of 395 neighborhoods. Daily shopping ranks 232nd.
Legend has it there was once a thatched hut built of ogi grass (silver grass) here, and the land was low-lying, which is how the place name came about; the original site of the hut is Komyoin Temple, in this neighborhood. In 1891, the Kobu Railway opened a station here.
From the Taisho era into the early Showa era, this area became a villa resort area, and in 1937, Prime Minister Konoe Fumimaro built his villa Tekigaiso not far south of the neighborhood. Ibuse Masuji also wrote Ogikubo Fudoki.
After the war, a black market appeared at the north exit, and several ramen shops near the station later opened branches one after another along Ome Kaido. Ogikubo ramen uses a Japanese-style broth simmered from katsuobushi (dried bonito) and niboshi (dried sardines), said to be because many of the shops were originally soba shops; Marucho, which opened at the south exit in 1948, was one such shop. Tracing up through the lineage of Higashi-Ikebukuro Taishoken, famous for tsukemen, the source also goes back to Marucho.
In December 2024, Tekigaiso Park, just outside the south side of the neighborhood, opened, and the City office is using this to promote neighborhood development around the station. One of the City's goals is to solve the problem of the railway dividing the north and south sides of the station.
Platform doors will first be installed on the Chuo Line Rapid side in May 2026, with the Local side scheduled to go into operation within fiscal year 2026.
Compared with the 395 Tokyo neighborhoods in this guide (scores 0–10)
Hospitals with inpatient beds (2020 data), public elementary and junior high schools whose catchment covers this area, high schools and universities within 1 km, stations, parks of 1 ha or more, and large shopping malls and department stores. Many Tokyo junior high students attend private schools, so junior high catchments are only a guide.
Maps show the shops and the sights. What a street is like, you only know by walking it. TidyMap uses AI street imagery analysis and public facility data to turn each area's street environment and everyday convenience into something you can compare. Search an address and look at the street outside first.
How to read it: yellow = poor, blue = good; grey = not enough data
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