Why do so many rivers flow through the Yanagawa? To find the answer, we must go back to the creation of the river.

Imagine – an ocean once filled the spot where you now stand. Sediment carried by the river extended this land, creating the widest tidal flat in Japan. Tidal flats are areas of land that appear when the ocean recedes at low tide. Around 2,000 years ago, people started building houses on such damp wetlands. However, whenever the heavy rains flooded the river, their houses would be instantly washed away. Just how did they manage to live here? They had the idea of digging trenches and piling up the dirt. This stabilized the land, and they subsequently built houses and rice paddies. And that wasn’t all; rainwater accumulated in the ditches, which they used to make life easier for themselves. Thus begins the history of the canals. Over time the number of canals increased, and the canalside town was built. Then, during the Warring States Period, a castle was built in Yanagawa, and the town’s canal was repurposed as a castle moat.
The Lord of Yanagawa Castle sought to draw water from the large river to create a network of canals throughout the town. The process was an incessant endeavor of trial and error. Flooding would occur whenever they failed to control the flow of water in the canals; they would then identify the source of the issue and make adjustments. Constant iteration, machine-like in its precision, allowed for the construction of the canal network, which not only provided water for daily life, but also served as a system for watering and draining crop fields.

What necessitated such a labor? In fact, Yanagawa faces the Ariake Sea, which has the largest tidal range in Japan at 6 meters.. As a result, the sea level rises higher than the ground at high tide. Try and imagine the place where you currently stand, sinking beneath the sea level. If the levee broke, the sea would come rushing in. To prevent this, multiple sturdy levees were built along the coast. However, there is another problem: The river water flowing from upstream. Normally, river water flows out to sea, but if this location was below sea level, the river would become unable to drain into the sea. What’s more, the river water would quickly flood the town. This is where the canals come in. The network of canals along Yanagawa, which totals 930 kilometers, safely holds the river water. Once the tide lowers and the sea level dips below ground level, that water water can drain into the sea. This is why the canals were necessary.


For the next 400 years the people of Yanagawa lived by this canal system, imbibing its waters. However, during the Showa Period of 1926-1989, the town was flooded again in an unprecedented disaster. This led to the construction of a dam upstream and the installation of a complete water supply system; water now flowed at the turn of a faucet. The people no longer needed to directly fetch water from the canals, and before anyone knew it, the canals became garbage dumps, and river contaminants besides. Eventually, they began to reek, so they set about planning a culvert to block the canals. However, a citizen of Yanagawa increasingly expressed a desire to return them to their once-pristine glory. This City Hall employee then held more than 100 meetings to gain the support of the residents. The key to their approval lay in appealing to their childhood memories of playing in the river. Despite turning their backs on their canals for a while, the newly galvanized people of Yanagawa endeavored for the next few years to clean them in an effort to revive the scenery of their youth. The result is the Yanagawa of today – a scenic water canal town. The views you see today are a direct result of this story.

So, why do so many rivers flow through Yanagawa? You can discover the answer within the story you heard thus far. Now, board the Canal Cruise, and uncover more stories about the canal through the waterside scenery.