Utazu — Utazu Map Poster

המפה

Utazu Map Poster

Utazu is a small town on the northern coast of Kagawa, between the cities of Marugame and Sakaide, facing the Seto Inland Sea. On a map its northern edge is a series of straight lines and right angles, the mark of reclaimed land and port frontage. Behind this, the older residential streets are more irregular, tucked between rail lines, roads and fields that run inland toward the rest of the Sanuki plain.

Rail defines much of the town's layout. Utazu Station is where the Seto-Ohashi Line, which crosses to Honshu over the Seto Ohashi bridges, branches off from the Yosan Line along the Shikoku coast. That junction gives the map a distinctive curve of track. More recently the waterfront has also become home to the Shikoku Aquarium, which looks out over the inland sea.

A Utazu map poster shows the contrast between the engineered coast and the softer streets inland. The long rail curves and straight harbour edges give the design structure, while the housing between them adds finer detail. For a town of this size the composition is surprisingly graphic, and it holds together well in any of the five styles.