How would four centuries feel to you?

Would those years feel long, or short?

How did your ancestors from four centuries ago look? How did they live?

What about the landscape of the Hozukyō Ravine? It has, in fact, remained almost unchanged. People still raft downstream on their boats, casting their fishing lines. But when it comes to Hozukyō Ravine’s nature, 400 years is nothing – long centuries passed in what felt like an instant, and still the ravine remains, its flow of life repeating endlessly.

As a servant of the gods, I shall now guide you along your ride down the Hozugawa River.

The Hozugawa River Boat Ride begins at the boarding area next to JR Kameoka Station. Imagine the following when you arrive: long before your time, that place known as Kameoka was deep beneath a lake. The gods elected to build a country here, and so they cleared mountains and flushed the lake water in the direction of Kyoto…or so goes the legend told here in Hozukyō, a stratified ravine nearly 200 million years old. The Hozugawa River Boat Ride skims the cleaved ravine walls, themselves resembling the high waves Moses cleaved.

Because the ravine is so slender, the ferrymen’s poles touch the walls as they row their boats. Walls that represent 200 million years of the Earth’s history. The River Boat Ride boasts a long 400-year history, with poles piercing holes 10 centimeters deep into the river walls every day during those long years. You cannot help but feel the eternity of those centuries as you drift downstream.

Now, allow me to introduce the history of the Hozugawa River Boat Ride.

Long ago, rainfall swelled the Hozugawa River, causing its flow to violently rage. Then one day, people were charged with damming the river. It came to be called Ōigawa because of that, a name some still use to this day. The dam brought the river under control, and the area became habitable for people.

Eventually, Japan’s capital city was moved from Nara to Kyoto 1,200 years ago. The people of Hozukyō say that without the Hozugawa River, there would be no capital in Kyoto. Nara depleted its supply of lumber, which it needed for construction and daily life. If the capital was to be moved, where would the right place be? During their search, they discovered Kameoka’s abundant lumber, along with a river that could be used to ferry said lumber: the Hozugawa.
After the capital was moved, the Hozugawa saw much lumber ferried upon its waters. Lumber was cut from the Kameoka mountains, then assembled into rafts that people rode downstream. These rafts were the ancestors of the boat you currently ride, friends. The lumber was shipped to Arashiyama and beyond, from which the capital in Kyoto and numerous temples were built.

Tenryūji Temple in Arashiyama, the Kyoto Imperial Palace, Nijo Castle, Osaka Castle – these are some of the buildings the Hozugawa River ferried into existence. Try to locate and trace the path to these places on a map. Hozugawa, into Katsurakawa, then into Yodogawa – although the names differ, you will notice these are all extensions of the same Hozugawa River.

In the Edo Period, a certain merchant took action to develop the river. To expand beyond lumber and into shipping rice, vegetables and other sundries, he set about trying to control the river’s current. He whittled the riverbed and erected piled stone walls to improve the current, meticulously calculated to enable small boats to sail safely downstream as well. This he accomplished on his own, in an era without excavators and without borrowing resources from the shogunate. The merchant’s name was Suminokura Ryōi, and this is how the Hozugawa River prospered as a cargo route between Kameoka and Kyoto.

Now, count 400 years after that era. The boat you’re riding is exactly the same as those of the Edo Period. It is known as a “flatboat,” and it is uniquely suited to the slenderness and steepness of the Hozugawa River. Once it completed the downstream course, the boat would have been carried by hand back to Kameoka, but that’s no longer the case now.

Years later, during the Meiji Period, a railroad was constructed across the region, and the Hozugawa River’s purpose as a cargo route came to an end. You might see sightseeing railcars or even the JR line while riding this boat. Just as the railroad came to relieve the river of its raison d’etre, VIPs from foreign countries came to Meiji-era Japan, expressing desire to ride on boats. Sharp river cruises like that of the Hozugawa hardly existed in the West. The delegations were astonished by how narrow the river was, narrow enough for their boats to scrape the walls, and all of them recorded their experiences in travel journals.

Positive word-of-mouth attracted visitors in droves, placing the Hozugawa River Boat Ride at the vanguard of Japanese tourism. Thus, the 400-year history of the Hozugawa River Boat Ride – one that continues unbroken to this day. The steering technology is, of course, as it was in the past. But so is everything else, including the river maintenance methods.

Now, friends, it is your turn to experience the Hozugawa River Boat Ride – that culture-rich river cruise that supported a nation’s capital. Become one with eternity on this journey, and enjoy Japan’s most storied river cruise.