Japan's oldest irrigation canal lives with nature-loving people over centuries

June 30, 2017

Japan's oldest irrigation canal lives with nature-loving people over centuries

Japan's "tsuyu" rainy season from June to early July represents the start of rice planting in various parts of the country, the practice which reminds Japanese that they have lived on eating rice.
Japan's oldest irrigation canal, called Sakuta-no-Unade, has continued to water over 150 hectares of rice fields in Nakagawa town, Fukuoka Prefecture, southwestern Japan.
The canal, which starts at a water gate built on the middle reaches of Nakagawa River,  has a total length of 5.5 kilometers.
The watercourse project is depicted in one of the oldest Japanese historical books, Nihon Shoki, compiled in the early 8th century. Precisely when the canal was dug remains unseen, but researchers surmise the oldest part of the canal system dates back to the second to third centuries, because a big ancient tomb excavated near the canal is believed to have been built for who ruled the area around the period.
The Sakuta canal is famous because of an episode linked to Empress Jingu, the legendary figure who appears in the book.
When people had difficulty cutting out through a big rock standing on the canal route, she prayed to the god that the rock would be removed, then a thunderbolt fell onto the rock and tore it apart.
The canal represents an important tourist asset for Nakagawa town, located south of Fukuoka City, the prefectural capital.
The town has the dual jobs of preserving the environment and landscape around the canal but at the same time, keeping the irrigation system in an active, workable condition.
If the canal bank is protected with modern stone walls only for the purpose of increasing convenience, will the landscape be well preserved?, a researcher doubts.
Water parks built along the canal enable people to get
them feel close to the aquatic environment. Nature-loving people are hoping to see an innovative design which will make it possible to preserve the historic and cultural value of the watercourse while maintaining and enhancing its irrigation functions.