The is a long arched " semi-domical" structure in the port area of

Wakkanai ' meaning "cold water river" is a city located in Sōya Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. It is the capital of Sōya Subprefecture. It contains Japan's northernmost point, Cape Sōya, from which the Russian island of Sakhalin can be seen. As of ...

Hokkaidō is Japan's second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; the two islands are connected by the undersea railway Seikan Tunnel. The la ...

, Japan. Rising to a height of above the sea and extending some , with seventy columns, an intercolumniation of , and a width from column to wall of , the form, inspired by a

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware ** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board * Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games * ...

, is said to be without parallel.

History

In accordance with the 1905

Treaty of Portsmouth A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement between actors in international law. It is usually made by and between sovereign states, but can include international organizations, individuals, business entities, and other legal pers ...

, South

Sakhalin Sakhalin ( rus, Сахали́н, r=Sakhalín, p=səxɐˈlʲin; ja, 樺太 ''Karafuto''; zh, c=, p=Kùyèdǎo, s=库页岛, t=庫頁島; Manchu: ᠰᠠᡥᠠᠯᡳᠶᠠᠨ, ''Sahaliyan''; Orok: Бугата на̄, ''Bugata nā''; Nivkh: ...

was incorporated into the

Empire of Japan The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent fo ...

and governed as

Karafuto Prefecture Karafuto Prefecture ( ja, 樺太庁, ''Karafuto-chō''; russian: Префектура Карафуто, Prefektura Karafuto), commonly known as South Sakhalin, was a prefecture of Japan located in Sakhalin from 1907 to 1949. Karafuto became ter ...

. To improve maritime connections between Wakkanai and Sakhalin, between 1910 and 1919 plans were laid for the redevelopment of the old fishing port of Wakkanai, with civil engineer in charge. Measures included a north breakwater to protect the port from windstorms and high waves, paired with a sand groin to the south to enclose the port, together with land reclamation and the construction of moorings. Initial plans for the north breakwater were for its parapet to rise to a height of , but this was considered insufficient to withstand winter storms. A revised design was formulated by twenty-six year-old , a graduate of the Department of Civil Engineering at Hokkaidō Imperial University. Construction of the breakwater began in 1920, with works on the North Breakwater Dome carried out from 1931 and completed in 1936. The superstructure is supported by reinforced concrete piles on the inner side and rests on the

reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete (RC), also called reinforced cement concrete (RCC) and ferroconcrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having hig ...

body of the breakwater facing the sea; it is topped with a parapet nearly high. The shipping route to Korsakov opened in 1923, that to

Nevelsk Nevelsk (russian: Не́вельск; ja, 本斗, ''Honto'') is a port town and the administrative center of Nevelsky District of Sakhalin Oblast, Russia, located on the southwest coast of the Sakhalin Island, from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, the ad ...

the following year. From 1938 to 1945 there was a railway station in the Dome. With the end of the war and interruption of ties with Sakhalin, the station closed, and the Dome came to be used for coal storage. By the late 1960s the concrete of the Dome was deteriorating, with the volumetric expansion of the corroding steel used for reinforcement, after many cycles of freezing and thawing, and the action of salts. Reconstruction began in 1978 and was completed in 1981. In 2001, the North Breakwater Dome of Wakkanai Port was among the first assets to be listed as

Hokkaidō Heritage is an initiative aimed at the valorization and transmission to the next generation of the tangible and intangible natural, cultural, historical, and industrial heritage of Hokkaidō, Japan. It is advanced by the , an Nonprofit organization#Japan, ...

References

External links

North Breakwater Dome
{{in lang, ja Wakkanai, Hokkaido Breakwaters 1936 establishments in Japan Buildings and structures in Hokkaido Buildings and structures completed in 1936

History

See also

References

External links