War and Peace: a brief history of Doshi River, part 1 道志川

The blessing from Doshi River 道志川 to Yokohama comes from Water Source Forests in Doshi Village 道志村. 21.7km Doshi River is a tributary for Sagami River 相模川. It starts from the east of Yamabushi Pass 山伏峠 whose western side is Lake Yamanakako 山中湖, and joins with Sagami River at the point west of Lake Tsukui 津久井湖. Approx. 10km of the river from Sagami River runs through Sagamihara City of Kanagawa, and further upstream is in Doshi Village of Yamanashi Prefecture. Kanagawa side was called Lower Doshi 下道志, and the area along the river in Yamanashi was named Upper Doshi 上道志. Going Upper Doshi by public transportation is tricky. The nearest train station would be Tsurushi Station 都留市駅 of Fujikyu Line 富士急行 on the foot of Mt. Fuji 富士山. From there, an hour bus ride could bring us there twice daily (time table, here). From JR Shinjuku Station of Tokyo, it’s about 4 hour journey of 3200-4500 yen (Approx. USD40) for one-way. If we go there fromYokohama, we first go to JR Gotemba Station 御殿場駅 by whatever way, and from there take a 1.5 hour bus by Fujikyu Bus 富士急バス, changing the service once at Asahigaoka Bus Stop 旭が丘バス停 on the shore of Lake Yamanaka. The expected duration of your journey is about 4.5 to 5 hours with 3800-4200 yen (USD ditto!) for one way. So, normally, we go there by car which is cheaper and quicker. When we drive to Doshi River from wherever, we have to enter National Route 413, aka Doshi Road. It’s a venerable road existing since Japanese Neolithic age, connecting Mt. Fuji with Kanto Plane 関東平野. There is no other road linking up Upper Doshi with the outer world. When we proceed in Route 413 from Lake Tsukui to Upper Doshi, we are always surrounded by mountain forests that get deeper as we approach to Doshi Village of Yamanashi Prefecture. As a rule of thumb, rich forest can withhold rain as underground water, while they simultaneously play as soil retainers. If forests are gone, the underground water system would disappear sooner or later. The scenery of Doshi Road is a very good testimony that abundant water of Doshi River is sustained by the mass of trees. Why then could Doshi Village preserve rich forests for more than a century? Actually, they are keeping the forests for at least 400 years thanks early to Japanese civil war + geopolitics, and later to international relation. Let me start first from the civil war.

Aone Community 青根 of Lower Doshi.
The road below is the Route 413,
and the blue roofs further down on the foot of
right mountains (Doshi Mountains) are
for camping lodges near the riverbank of Doshi River.

Looking south on our way to Upper Doshi.
It’s actually the northern slopes of Tanzawa Mountains.

During the 15^th to 16^th centuries of the civil war, Japanese cut trees a lot. Slowly growing forests were useless for rapid destruction in wars. Moreover, deforestation did not stop at the end of the civil war. After the establishment of Tokugawa Shogunate 徳川幕府 in 1603, increasing population of peace time promoted slash-and-burn agriculture for food, which put enormous pressure on the forests. Obliteration of virgin forest that was started during the 7^th century in Kyoto and Nara, as Totman (1989) said, expanded all over Japan. Saving grace was, it was before the industrial revolution so that the speed of demolition did not create a collapse of environment. Rather, according to Suga, Okamoto and Ushimaru (2012), they were converting the archipelago from forests-dominating to grassland-covering with rich but different biodiversity. When a British diplomat, Sir Ernest Mason Satow, hiked around Japanese mountains in the late 19^th century, he encountered here and there lots of vast flower beds in grassland. Japanese farmers cut trees, converted some into farmlands, the others to grasslands for their livestock and materials for construction and daily tools (e.g. thatched roofs and tatami mats). But, villagers in Doshi Village did not have such ordinary rural life of Japan.

This is Niiharu’s farmland nested in the Niiharu Citizen Forest of Yokohama.
The senior forest volunteers for Niiharu told me
this part of the area has been cultivated for centuries,
and the background forests are new additions in the late 20^th century.
Before World War II, the majority of the scenery here was for agricultural field.
Hmmmmmmm.

A traditional house gate remaining in
Toriya community 鳥屋 near Lake Miyagase 宮ケ瀬湖.
For having this size of thatched roof,
we need rather substantial acreage of grassland.
The architecture also requires rethatching once in every 15-20 years
so that maintaining the place for construction material
(i.e. grass) for long-term was very important.
It means once deforested,
villagers had to maintain diligently the grassland
through regular mowing every fall to avoid reforestation.

Do you remember Tsukui Lake and Shiroyama Park 津久井城山公園 we’ve visited last fall? A booklet provided by the Park Office (in Japanese, downloadable from here) said Shiroyama Hill was a bald mountain when it was a fortress. The place was a battle ground, where trees were simply obstruction for the business. Samurais must have cut vegetation vigorously. From Shiroyama Park to Aoyama Settling Basin 青山沈殿池 on Doshi River, it’s only 6K. From Mt. Fuji and Kofu City 甲府市, the routes along Sagami River and Doshi River were important passage to Kanto Plane for millennia. Not for nothing National Route 20, aka Koshu-kaido Route 甲州街道 and Chuo Express Way 中央高速 run through the area. Lots of warlords from Central Japan wanted to control the territory of Doshi Village and the northern Kanagawa Prefecture. Deforestation was inevitable. However, after conquering Tsukui Castle on Shiroyama Hill in 1590, Tokugawa Ieyasu 徳川家康, the founder of Edo Shogunate, grabbed the land and ordered to afforest the entire area massively in order to create a buffer zone, in case another enemy approached to Edo (Tokyo) from the west. Later, this defense policy was transformed to industrial policy of timber and fuel (i.e., charcoal) production whose main customer was his city, Edo. Almost entire forests of Tama Region of Tokyo, and Tanzawa / Hakone of Kanagawa were the property of Shogunate Government from 1590 till 1868. There, cutting trees without governmental permission was considered as high treason with death penalty.

Afforested cypresses in Shiroyama Hill.
They were planted in the middle of the 19^th century
by a local mandarin, Egawa Tarozaemon Hidetatsu 江川太郎左衛門秀龍.
The Shogunate Government must have planned
to harvest them in hundreds years later as construction materials.
Now they are registered historical monuments for Kanagawa Prefecture.

Kobotoke Pass 小仏峠 on the former Koshu-kaido Route.
There are only ruins in the 21^st century,
but until about 150 years ago
there was a checkpoint of Shogunate Government,
stopping invaders to Edo (Tokyo) from the west.

Early this month, we’ve been to Lake Tanzawa 丹沢湖 to meet with a Treasure Tree 箒杉, haven’t we? The people lived in the region of Lake Tanzawa was the assigned guardian of the forests of Treasure Trees for Shogun. Villagers of Doshi also protected the afforested mountain for Edo. They could not cut trees for rice paddies or farmlands as ordinary farmers did elsewhere in Japan. Instead, they engaged in forestry for Edo government. They were also given several permissions, such as holding arms to fish in the river, or to hunt deer and the other wild animals. That was a real privilege where disarmament among non-worriers was the foundation of the Shogunate politics. The life would have been not bad in Doshi Village. There is a book, “Oral Record of Traditional Meal in Kanagawa Prefecture 聞き書 神奈川の食事 日本の食生活全集（14）” published in 1992. There, the grannies lived near present-day Lake Tanzawa said even in the late 19^th century their community had “traditional” regular meal with deer steak and freshly BBQed fishes. That’s something if we consider the rest of the nation of that time had mainly vegetarian diet, not by choice but due to subsistence farming. I imagine villagers of Doshi enjoyed similar life back then. Doshi Village, 14km long and narrow human settlement along the river in deep mountains, has several temples holding elaborate Buddha statues dating back to Shogunate Period, or Shintoism shrines that preside over lively traditional seasonal festivals, including amateur Kabuki theatre (Maekawa 2007). Starving people could not have such things, couldn’t they? When Ernest M. Satow visited Doshi Village in January 1872, the rush forests around Doshi River were frozen-green with nice houses dotted here and there with open-air private spa to enjoy relaxation under moonlight. Though, the life style in Doshi changed dramatically with the Port of Yokohama.

The present-day forests near Lake Tanzawa,
which was once owned by Shogun.

“Treasure Tree” in Lake Tanzawa Area.

Water source forests in Doshi Village last fall.
The greenery is thanks to
the traditional guardian of the trees in the Village.

According to Izumi (2004), when Shogunate Government collapsed and Meiji Restoration Government 明治維新政府 took over, the entire forests owned by the previous government became the property of the Emperor 御領林. Shogunate had lots of forests all over Japan, and the Government of Emperor cashed in quite many of them during the 19^th century, by selling them to their supporters (with preferential price, of course). Meanwhile, at the time of societal chaos during 1868-1890, people of Doshi who lost the Shogun as the main client of their forestry tried to do the same as the rest of Japan: cutting trees to expand their field for food production to avoid starvation. On the other hand, when the Meiji Government was mulling over the treatment of their newly inherited “Treasure Trees,” Yokohama’s water problem became large. The new government took over not only the land of Shogun, but also one-sided treaties with Europeans and Americans. The deal was rapidly vacuuming Japanese silver to the coffers of imperialists in London or else, which caused hyperinflation in Japan. In addition, Japanese knew rather well similar agreements for Qing Dynasty after the Opium War were devastating the glory of China. The new government had to deal with this international issue ASAP. Sitting at the negotiation table with the imperialists as “equal” was the first thing to do. But, Yokohama where the foreigners stayed had horrible water often with viruses of epidemics. “Oh, how barbarous!” was the last evaluation Meiji Government wanted to receive during the complicated diplomacy. They hired British Engineer Colonel Palmer and built for Yokohama one of the most technically advanced waterworks of the world, earlier than for Hamburg in Germany. Furthermore, the government needed the forest guaranteeing high quality water for the international city and port. It happened to be one of the water intake facilities Palmer suggested was located in the middle of Emperor’s forests that traditionally engaged in governmental forestry. No land negotiation was necessary to secure the water source forests. Doshi was an easy place for the mandarins in Tokyo. The people in Doshi were chosen again to serve, this time, for Yokohama. They were imposed new restrictions over their life by Tokyo, and Yokohama.

The international port of Yokohama was not built in one day,
or alone, …

but with the help of these plants.

* Here is the list of books that gave me the info for this post.

Conrad D. Totman. The Green Archipelago: Forestry in Preindustrial Japan. University of California Press, 1989. ISBN-10: 0520063120, ISBN-13: 978-0520063129.

Takeshi Suka 須賀 丈; Atsushi Ushimaru丑丸 敦史; Toru Okamoto 岡本 透. Grassland and Japanese: ten thousand years’ journey through the grassland of Japanese Archipelago 草地と日本人―日本列島草原1万年の旅. Tsukij-Shokan 築地書館, 2012. ISBN-10: 4806714348, ISBN-13: 978-4806714347.

Ernest Mason Satow. A Handbook for Travellers in Central and Northern Japan: Being a Guide to Tokio, Kioto, Ozaka, and Other Cities; The Most Interesting Parts of the Main Island Between Kobe and Awomori, with Ascents of the Principal Mountains, and Descriptions of Temples. Forgotten Books, 2017. ISBN-10: 0282568409, ISBN-13: 978-0282568405.

The Editorial Committee for Recording Japanese Regional Diets, Kanagawa Chapter 日本の食生活全集神奈川編集委員会. Oral Record of Traditional Meal in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japanese Regional Diets volume 14 聞き書 神奈川の食事 日本の食生活全集. Rural Culture Association Japan 農山漁村文化協会, 1992. ISBN-10: 4540920022, ISBN-13: 978-4540920028.

Seiji Maekawa 前川 清治. The Story of Doshi 22km: a village of greenery, clear stream, and history 道志七里物語―緑と清流と歴史の郷. Yamanashi Nichinichi Shimbun 山梨日日新聞社, 2006. ISBN-10: 4897106141, ISBN-13: 978-4897106144.

Keiko Izumi 泉 桂子. The Origin of Modern Water Resource Conservation Forests: an ecological history of forests and cities 近代水源林の誕生とその軌跡―森林(もり)と都市の環境史. University of Tokyo Press 東京大学出版会, 2004. ISBN-10: 4130760262, ISBN-13: 978-4130760263.

In case you need a contact in Doshi Village, the address of their village office is

Doshi Village Office 道志村役場

6181-1 Doshi Village, Minamitsuru-gun, Yamanashi, 402-0209

〒402-0209 山梨県南都留郡道志村6181-1

Phone: 0554-52-2111

FAX: 0554-52-2572

http://www.vill.doshi.lg.jp/

Amazing Grace: Yokohama’s waterworks and Doshi River 道志川

Being more exact, the first modern waterworks of Japan withdrew water from the confluence of Sagami 相模川 and Doshi Rivers 道志川, approx. ASL 200m in about 2.5K southwest from the peak of Mt. Takao 高尾山 (ASL 599.3m). In 1887, the system became operational and pumped up 5720m³ H₂O per day for 70 thousand people in Yokohama. The water was then sent via the closed aqueduct to the first modern Japanese water purification plant in Nogeyama 野毛山, ASL 50m. Nogeyama, where we now have a zoo, is a small hill situated right behind the downtown of Yokohama named Kan’nai (関内 meaning “within the gate,” aka “a ghetto,” ASL 3m). The place was started during Tokugawa Shogunate period 江戸時代 as the “foreigners-only area.” By 1887 Japanese nationals were allowed to live there freely and to engage in international business. So, in terms of local politics, economic policy and diplomacy of the late 19^th century, the location of the “water purification plant of the most advanced technology for the nation” was fitting.

In the northwestern part of Yokohama,
there runs the “Waterworks Road 水道みち”
which is now a pedestrian way over the underground aqueduct
coming from the north of the Prefecture.
If you find an old-looking brass post,
often with a head of lion,
sprouting from the road in Yokohama,
it’s a sign you are on or near the aqueduct.
They were imported and situated there
during the late 19^th century
to make Japan “presentable” for Europeans.

And I found it very interesting the first pricing
of water from Yokohama’s waterworks.
Foreigners paid more than 10 times for one contract.
Er, well, those days,
ordinary Japanese lived in attached houses at best
and used communal water faucet
so that landlords collected tiny water fee from lots of tenants.
In contrast, foreigners lived in detached mansions
often surrounded by a large private garden
with lots of imported water-needy roses.
Progressive pricing made sense, huh?
The data is shown in
Yokohama Waterworks Commemoration Hall 横浜水道記念館.

Though, the population of Yokohama kept growing. 5720m³ became quickly not-enough. In 1897, the city moved the water intake facility 3km upstream of Doshi River, and continued expanding the water network. When in 1915 the construction of Nishiya Water Purification Plant 西谷浄水場 was completed, the system was expecting to supply water for 800 thousand residents. In less than 20 years, the size of Yokohama literally exploded for more than 10 folds, and Doshi River alone carried the task to let them watered. After 1915 Yokohama experienced the 1923 GreatKanto Earthquake (関東大震災; Yokohama was nearer to the epicenter than Tokyo) and the 1945 carpet bombing by the US (横浜大空襲; do you know the US used 320 bombers for one night over Tokyo, in contrast to 517 bombers for 1 hour over Yokohama?). Yokohama’s population reached 1 million in 1942. Whatever happened, until 1947 when Sagami Dam became operational, Doshi River was the only water source for the city of Yokohama. Even today, the water intake from Doshi River is about 9% of Yokohama’s tap water. In addition, the water from Doshi River is now partially diverted to 2 underground aqueducts connected with Lake Miyagase whose water also comes to Yokohama. The abundance of Doshi River is amazing. Not only of its volume, we have to know the quality. For more than a century, people talk about Yokohama’s waterworks, “whose water is never rotten for ships to navigate to Europe via the equator.” Recalling Yokohama Village for cholera, this surely is the achievement of Doshi River, or Doshi Village Water Source Forest.

Water Source	How much Yokohama is allowed to take per day (in m3)	%
Doshi River	172800	8.8
Lake Sagami	394000	20.1
Lake Tsukui	284700	14.6
Lake Tanzawa	605200	30.9
Lake Miyagase	499000	25.5

Source : http://www.city.yokohama.lg.jp/suidou/os/suidou-suishitsu/suidou/suigen.html

We can check the percentage of storage at each water source, real-time, here.

Nishiya Water Purification Plant.
The place preserves several historical buildings
as working facility from its opening in 1915.

The plant in Nogeyama was destroyed completely
by the Great Kanto Earthquake.
It does not exist anymore.
Though, I imagine the scenery from Noge Purification Plant
could be similar to this vista
for Minatomirai Area みなとみらい地区 seen from Nishiya Plant.

The question is, why Doshi River could have provided the high quantity and quality of water for more than a century. Between the Imperial Palace in Tokyo and the confluence of Sagami and Doshi Rivers, it’s about 55km distance, or in 1 hour drive. We have seen the ocean of houses of Tokyo below Mt. Takao. At least till the late 20^th century, Japan has experienced impressive economic growth, while her population carried on expanding. I think British Colonel Palmer chose the first intake point for Yokohama only because of its geographical character to send water with gravitation. Without some reason, Doshi Village Forests could have been deforested rapidly for “economic development” and Doshi River would have had different characters. Yokohama, then, must have run for cover to satisfy its thirsty residents. Such things did not happen. Why?

Last summer during waterworks’ festival, officers for Nishiya Plant showed me the difference in altitude among water sources in this way. Water from Doshi River comes from the highest place. Certainly.

Water of Doshi River is collected at Abiko Water Intake Facility 鮑子取水口,
and gravitationally conveyed to Aoyama Settling Basin 青山沈殿池 1K downstream.
This is the entrance for water from Abiko Facility to Aoyama Basin.
It’s built in 1913 and now a registered national monument.
The facility is still working for Yokohama’s waterworks.

At Aoyama Settling Basin, first,
large debris from the water source forests is filtered out in this pool.
According to Mr. Yagui for the Settling Basin,
sometimes even drowned wild boar piglets end up here …
Oh my …

The debris collected at the entrance of Aoyama Settling Basin.
When I’ve been there, no piglet was found.
A bit of disappointment …
The wheelbarrow is for debris gathering, of course.

When a storm hits the area and the water from Doshi River is really muddy,
polyaluminum chloride is added in this water corridor
to quicken the precipitation of impurities out of water.
The water flows simply by gravitation and
the design of the waterway facilitates the stirring with the chemical.

Mr. Yagui showed me a little experiment with polyaluminum chloride.
He added 5mg of chemical into 1L of muddy water,
stirred it, and …

here, the water becomes this transparent in less than 5 minutes.
Wow!

The debris condensed by polyaluminum or otherwise is settled here
in the basin while they slowly flow for 9 hours …
Oh, by the way, the chemical does not react with living creatures
so that this pool has lots of fishes and shrimps coming from Doshi River.
Inevitably, lots of herons use Aoyama Basin as their dinner table.
The menu for water birds cannot get through the final gate of the basin, where …

the water passes down to Shiroyama Tunnel 城山隧道that is connected in about 4.5K down with
an almost entirely underground aqueduct
running across the City of Sagamihara 相模原市.
The final destination of the watercourse is
the oldest (remaining) water purification plant in Yokohama,
Kawai Plant 川井浄水場.
Since its beginning in 1913,
no powered pump is used for sending water from Aoyama Basin to Kawai Plant.
And not a drop is shared with the people of Sagamihara.
I’ll return to this point later.

Kawai Water Purification Plant 川井浄水場.
In 2014, the plant introduced the most advanced technology
of water purification with ceramics,
and now supplies 172800m³ of tap water per day.
From here, the water from Doshi River is
distributed mainly to the western Yokohama.

Yokohama Waterworks Bureau 横浜市水道局

Phone: 045-847-6262

FAX: 045-848-4281

http://www.city.yokohama.lg.jp/suidou/

Magic wand to make stinky water clean: Japanese first modern waterworks

Before visiting the largest “Citizen” Forest of Yokohama, let’s talk again about 4 large water reservoirs for Kanagawa Prefecture. The line-up is

Name of the Dam	Accompanying Lake	Operational since	Water Storage Volume (million m3)	Catchment Area (km2)
Sagami Dam	Lake Sagami	1947	48.2	1200
Shiroyama Dam	Lake Tsukui	1965	51.2
Miho Dam	Lake Tanzawa	1979	54.5	159
Miyagase Dam	Lake Miyagase	2002	183	100

These dams (plus one more that I tell you next week) provide 90% of tap water in Kanagawa. The remaining 10% is for Hadano City 秦野市 and the surrounding area who uses underground water system of Mizunashi River 水無川 from Tanzawa. Unlike Tokyo, Kanagawa Prefecture procures all the water within its border. Water source forests in western Kanagawa receive lots of rain so that Kanagawa seldom has water shortage. Moreover, Kanagawa Water Source Authority神奈川県内広域水道企業団 and Waterworks Bureaus of cities have an impressive network to smooth out water supply for the entire prefecture. The dams except Miyagase have the western Tanzawa 丹沢山系 and Okutama 奥多摩山系 mountains as the catchment area where it rains a lot. Miyagase Dam 宮ケ瀬ダム asks the eastern Tanzawa only as its catchment area, but its capacity is the largest. The water offices connect Sagami 相模ダム and Shiroyama 城山ダム dams with Miyagase Dam by 2 large underground aqueducts to store water. In addition to this, the underground aqueducts also connect Iizumi 飯泉取水堰, Sagami 相模大堰 and Samukawa 寒川取水堰 waterintake facilities. Iizumi facility collects water from Sakawa River 酒匂川 stored at Miho Dam 三保ダム. Sagami and Samukawa facilities withdraw H2O from Sagami River 相模川 stored in Sagami, Tsukui, and Miyagase Dams. The connection among water facilities stabilizes water supply from these 2 rivers and distribute it to the population centers of the prefecture, including Yokohama. 

Lake Sagami created by Sagami Dam

Lake Tsukui created by Shiroyama Dam

Lake Tanzawa created by Miho Dam

Lake Miyagase, created by Miyagase Dam

Samukawa water intake facility on Sagami River

A prefecture where 1/3 of it is in the megalopolis Tokyo area, i.e. Yokohama, Kawasaki, Fujisawa, and Sagamihara, rarity of drought is an achievement. I understand the pride of officers for the prefectural government or the city halls in Kanagawa when they describe the arrangement from their wise water policy making and execution with a long-term view. Er, well, BUT, these days I felt the very beginning of the foresight would be thanks to the coincidence of the history. The lucky chance happened some 150 years ago from the now-largest “citizen” forest of Yokohama. And that was because Japan closed itself to the outer world between 1639 and 1854. In those days, I don’t think there was anybody who cleverly expected the 21st century waterworks system of Kanagawa. Taking a credit of drought-less Kanagawa should require some modesty. Now I explain you why I think so.

When Commodore Matthew Perry of the US prised open the Japanese door for westerners in 1854, Edo (Tokyo) government 徳川幕府 did not want to be physically near to the white-faced people at all. They first let the foreigners have their consulate in Shimoda of Izu Peninsula 伊豆下田, some 110K south from Tokyo, and Hakodate in Hokkaido 函館, about 800K north from Tokyo. Soon Imperialists’ gun diplomacy forced the Shogun to tolerate them nearer. In 1858, the Port of Yokohama, 20K south from the Edo Castle (now, the　Imperial Palace), was opened. Even though, until 1899 Japan did not allow non-nationals to move around in the country. The concentration camp of foreigners in Yokohama was enforced for about 40 years. The port Europeans (; then, Americans became busy with their Civil War) had to stay that long was not so comfortable at the beginning. Before 1858, this part of the beach of Edo (Tokyo) Bay was salty swamps with occasional sandbanks for a small impoverished village of fishermen’s huts, called Yokohama Village. Inevitably for sandy places surrounded by salty swamps, the water quality was extremely poor. Before 1858, the area was frequently hit by the outbreaks of cholera. Do you remember in August 2015 we visited Yasaka Shrine 戸塚八坂神社 near Masakarigafuchi Citizen Forest まさかりが淵市民の森? The Shintoism Shrine is famous for the transgender festival every 14^th of July. The carnival is said to be started in the 17^th century to “pacify” demon of cholera. The shrine is about 8K inland from the newly established port.

Yasaka Shrine against cholera epidemic

In 1868, Edo Shogunate was replaced by Meiji Government 明治政府 who was eager to industrialize and imperialize Japan. Meanwhile, the new international port attracted lots of people from all over Japan who needed water too. The population of Yokohama exploded. In 1868, Yokohama already had 28589 residents including 1070 foreigners. By 1876, the population became 56048. For a while, the government let Yokohama to follow Tokyo about water. Some 300 years earlier, the place around Edo Castle 江戸城 was also a swamp. For centuries the Shogunate government reclaimed land, and built waterworks in ditch such as Tamagawa Josui Waterworks 玉川上水. In 1871, the mandarins for Yokohama made private entrepreneurs build ditches and carry water in wooden pipe from Tama River 多摩川, just like for Edo. According to Prof. Keiko Izumiof Iwate Prefectural University, the volume of H2O reaching to the new port in this way could not keep pace with the increasing number of residents. Worse, open-air ditches with hastily connected wooden pipes contaminated the contents at once. Outbreaks of cholera, again and again. In addition, rashly constructed new town was prone to large fire, and lack of water created the serious fire incidents. Water sellers with wooden buckets for exorbitant price did thriving business in Yokohama. On the other hand, luckily for westerners they had superior weaponry to Japan. They went like “OK, we stay at the place you designated for us. But, hey, you have to make our place nicer for our life in Japan. Otherwise, we’re gonna push you trade treaties that would extract silver, silk, and any Japanese goodies as much as possible while we are completely immune to Japanese law. By the way, our gun can kill Yokohama people easily whenever we want to.” The new government hated the international trade treaties concluded during the Shogunate. They had to provide good deals to invite westerners to the renegotiation table. i.e., Japan needed better infrastructure for Yokohama ghetto of foreigners. They realized private water business in old Edo style did not work.

A remnant of old wooden pipe
used for the private water business in Yokohama.

A water seller in early days of the port of Yokohama.
We can find these historical artifacts in
Yokohama Waterworks Commemoration Hall 横浜水道記念館.
It’s a fun museum with lots of exhibits
about mechanics of waterworks in Yokohama,
old and new.

So, in 1883, the Meiji government invited British Army Engineer Brigade Colonel H. S. Palmer to create project information documents to build a modern waterworks system for Yokohama. In his proposal, Palmer presented 2 water sources for Yokohama; Tama River and Sagami River. Kanagawa Prefectural government chose Sagami River since all the suggested water intake facilities from Sagami River was in Kanagawa Prefecture. (Ah-ha, so Kanagawa is historically stingy about water towards Tokyo!) The construction started in 1885 and the system for Yokohama became operational in 1887. It was the first modern waterworks in Japan, earlier than for Tokyo. For more than 150 years, the system continue withdrawing water from near Tsukui Lake, or, to be more exact, from a tributary of Sagami River called Doshi River 道志川. It sends water to Yokohama only by the gravitational pull created by the difference of elevation between the water source and Yokohama’s water purification plants some 53km apart; no pumping is used at all. From the beginning the network goes through the closed and sometimes underground pipes, which made it possible to convey the water to the destinations “as-is” at the intake facility. As Prof. Izumi pointed out, the design made the water quality at the source all the more important. All sound very difficult for a mega national project of the late 19^th century. Why, then, could the endeavor be completed in only 4 years from the inception? Well, it’s because of the water source forest surrounding the water intake facility in Palmer’s design. It’s Doshi Village Water Source Forest 道志村水源林, owned by the city of Yokohama, but situated in Yamanashi Prefecture. That’s my topic next week. It’s a story possibly similar to the international relation along Mekong River, or for Rogun Dam of Tajikistan.

Doshi River along the Aoyama Settling Basin 青山沈でん池

Kanagawa Water Source Authority 神奈川県内広域水道企業団

1194 Yasashi-cho, Asahi-ku, Yokohama, 241-8525

Phone: 045-363-1111

Yokohama Waterworks Bureau 横浜市水道局

Phone: 045-847-6262

FAX: 045-848-4281

http://www.city.yokohama.lg.jp/suidou/