or is an area of
paddy fields and other agricultural fields along the Minuma Irrigational Canal in
Saitama Prefecture,
Japan. The area encompasses 1260 hectares and straddles across five wards of the city of
Saitama (
Kita-ku,
Ōmiya-ku,
Minuma-ku,
Urawa-ku, and
Midori-ku). Despite its close proximity to major urban areas such as
Saitama-Shintoshin Station
is a passenger railway station located in Ōmiya-ku, Saitama, Saitama Prefecture, Japan, operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East).
Lines
Saitama-Shintoshin Station is served by the Keihin-Tōhoku Line, Takasaki Line, and Tohoku Main ...
and
Ōmiya Station, idyllic scenery consisting of paddy fields, farmlands, forests and rivers still remains.
Geography
The area stands on the Shiba River Lowland, which is located inside of the Ōmiya Plateau in the central
Kantō plain
The is the largest plain in Japan, and is located in the Kantō region of central Honshū. The total area of 17,000 km2 covers more than half of the region extending over Tokyo, Saitama Prefecture, Kanagawa Prefecture, Chiba Prefecture, ...
. The Shiba River and Katayagawa River constitute the region's major stream system.
History
From the
Jōmon to the early
Edo period
The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characte ...
, the high sea level associated with the
Holocene climatic optimum linked the region with
Tokyo Bay
is a bay located in the southern Kantō region of Japan, and spans the coasts of Tokyo, Kanagawa Prefecture, and Chiba Prefecture. Tokyo Bay is connected to the Pacific Ocean by the Uraga Channel. The Tokyo Bay region is both the most populous ...
and nearly two-thirds of the area occupied by the former city of
Urawa was under water. This is supported by many
middens found in the region which date back to the early Jōmon period. Subsequently, as the climate cooled down, the retracting shoreline left the region a countless number of
marshland
A marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p Marshes can often be found at ...
s and
wetland
A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The p ...
s, resulting in the creation of Minuma.
Between the early Edo Period and the mid-Edo period, the area was converted into a reservoir by for irrigation. In 1629, the project began with constructing a levee between current Tsukishima in Saitama and Kizoro in the city of
Kawaguchi. The structure was called , literally meaning eight ''chō'' levee, since the length of the levee was approximately eight ''
chō
is a Japanese actor and narrator from Kōnosu, Saitama. His former stage name was . He is a graduate of the Nishogakusha University Department of Literature and received training at Bungakuza's research establishment and the Seinenza Theater C ...
'' (870 meters). The reservoir mounted to cover roughly 1200 hectares with the average depth of one meter.
The mid-Edo period to the
Post-war period marked the time span during which the area was actively utilized for agriculture by draining the reservoir. In 1727, the reservoir levee was demolished and rice paddies were constructed on the reclaimed site. To ensure continual access to irrigational water in the region, an irrigation canal system supplied by the
Tone River
The is a river in the Kantō region of Japan. It is in length (the second longest in Japan after the Shinano) and has a drainage area of (the largest in Japan). It is nicknamed Bandō Tarō (); ''Bandō'' is an obsolete alias of the Kantō ...
was introduced. Canals were dug roughly in a north–south direction along the two plateaus that sandwich the region.
References
{{in lang, ja}
Official Saitama City municipal site
Saitama (city)
Geography of Saitama Prefecture