Tamagawagakuen, a hillside town born from land sold to found a school, where the train passes through campus cherry blossoms in spring
The closest neighborhoods in the same city.
Tamagawagakuen 1-chome through 8-chome were once wooded hills; after Tamagawagakuen bought the land, it ran the school and sold off residential lots at the same time, and the neighborhood took its name from the school. The founder, Obara Kuniyoshi, borrowed money to buy the land, graded about 80% of it for sale, and used the proceeds to build the school buildings. Trains coming from the Shinjuku direction pass through Tamagawagakuen's campus, and in spring this is a noted spot for cherry blossoms.
The station sits in a valley bottom squeezed between hills to the east and west, and the residential areas have a lot of steep slopes. With narrow streets and steep slopes, regular route buses can't get into the lanes, so residents started pushing for a community bus from the mid-1990s, and it finally began running in 2006. In 2020, 67% of households in this neighborhood owned their home and about 41% were single-person households, both higher than the Machida City average.
On the east, west, and south sides of the station there are shopping streets running parallel to the railway, and the shopping building in front of the south exit has an Odakyu OX supermarket and a drugstore. The community center at the north exit is connected to the station building by a pedestrian bridge, which opened in 2021.
The area around the station is an educational district, with no pachinko parlors. Judging from our street photos, greenery ranks 101st among 395 neighborhoods in Tokyo, the highest-ranking category for this neighborhood. Higashi-Tamagawagakuen 1- through 4-chome, recently added to this neighborhood, have no street photos yet, so the street-photo rankings reflect only the rest of the neighborhood.
Odakyu's Rapid Express and Express trains don't stop at Tamagawagakuen-mae, so normally you have to take the Local; only the morning inbound Commuter Semi Express on weekdays and the evening outbound Semi Express stop here. Public transit ranks 320th among 395 neighborhoods, and daily shopping ranks 384th. Judging from our street photos, sidewalks rank last among 395 neighborhoods, the weakest category for this neighborhood.
The community bus is also stretched thin: in 2022, all three routes cut service significantly due to the pandemic and a driver shortage. The route bus from the north exit to Machida, which used to run 2 round trips on weekdays, stopped running at the end of September 2025. Starting in June 2026, the neighborhood association will pilot a resident mutual-aid ride program for medical visits.
The station opened in April 1929; the school provided the station building and land, and asked Odakyu to build the station. Naming the station after the school was something Obara Kuniyoshi had already done at Seijo Gakuen.
In 1967, a new address system was implemented, establishing Tamagawagakuen 1-chome through 8-chome. The third-generation station building, which opened in 1970, was fitted with an experimental automatic ticket gate — at the time the only one on the entire Odakyu line — but it broke down too often and was removed a few years later.
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
TidyMap rates the street environment and everyday convenience. It does not assess the home itself, safety, noise or actual living experience. Street environment scores use AI assessments of imagery; convenience scores use public facility data.
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