The is an 11 kilometer long

canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flow un ...

built in the

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 characteriz ...

in the city of

Kanazawa, Ishikawa is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 466,029 in 203,271 households, and a population density of 990 persons per km2. The total area of the city was . Overview Cityscape ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. A 8.7 kilometer portion of this canal was designated a National Historic Site of Japan in 2010.

Overview

The Tatsumi Canal was completed in 1632 by the third ''daimyō'' of

Kanazawa Domain The , also known as the , was a domain of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1583 to 1871.

Maeda Toshitsune was an early-Edo period Japanese samurai, and the 2nd ''daimyō'' of Kaga Domain in the Hokuriku region of Japan, and the 3rd hereditary chieftain of the Maeda clan. Toshitsune was a brother of Maeda Toshinaga and a son of Maeda Toshiie. He was ...

. After the Kanazawa Great Fire of 1631 destroyed the ''

jōkamachi The term refers to a type of urban structures in Japan in which the city surrounds a feudal lord's castle. These cities did not necessarily form around castles after the Edo period; some are known as Jin'yamachi, cities that have evolved around J ...

'' and most of

Kanazawa Castle is a large, partially-restored Japanese castle in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. It is located adjacent to the celebrated Kenroku-en Garden, which once formed the castle's private outer garden. It was the headquarters of Kaga Domain, rule ...

, he ordered the construction of a canal for the purpose of fire protection and to provide water for the

Kenrokuen Kenroku-en (兼六園, Six Attributes Garden), located in Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan, is an old private garden. Along with Kairaku-en and Kōraku-en, Kenroku-en is one of the Three Great Gardens of Japan. The grounds are open year-round except ...

gardens and moats of Kanazawa Castle. Water was diverted at Kamitatsumi upstream of the Sai River, and to the Kodatsuno plateau via a water tunnel of about 4 kilometers and the use of an inverse siphon to bring water against an uphill gradient. The Tatsumi canal proper then extended for 11 kilometers. En route, it was also used for irrigation purposes. Despite the long distance and technical difficulties in building the canal, it was completed in less than a year. At that time, a wooden trough was buried to guide water to Kanazawa Castle. This was later replaced with a stone pipe with an average width of about 1.7 meters and a height of 2 to 2.6 meters. The canal inlet was extended another 600 meters in 1855. The canal is regarded as a valuable artifact of

civil engineering Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewage ...

technology during the

, and the 8.7 kilometer portion covered by the National Historic Site designation in 2010 is centered on the upper and middle reaches. This portion is about 30 minutes by car from

Kanazawa Station is a major railway station in Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan, operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West), the private railway operator Hokuriku Railroad, and the third-sector operator IR Ishikawa Railway. Beneath a square in front of the JR ...

on the

JR West , also referred to as , is one of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) companies and operates in western Honshu. It has its headquarters in Kita-ku, Osaka. It is listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange, is a constituent of the TOPIX Large70 index, and ...

Hokuriku Main Line The Hokuriku Main Line ( ja, 北陸本線, ) is a 176.6 kilometer railway line owned by the West Japan Railway Company (JR West) connecting the Maibara Station in Maibara, Shiga, with the Naoetsu Station in Joetsu, Niigata. The section betwee ...

References

External links

Kanazawa city home page
{{in lang, ja History of Ishikawa Prefecture Kanazawa Historic Sites of Japan Kaga Province Canals in Japan Canals opened in 1634 1634 establishments in Japan

Overview

See also

References

External links