When Japan was a poor nation, streams flowed through every village. Murmuring gently in spring, with violets and lotus flowers blanketing the banks. Alive in summer, with children chasing fireflies and catching gobies. When Japan was a poor nation, every town had canals. While the water may not always have been pristine, the sight of a stream from a bridge or the riverbank could soothe one’s soul and ease daily burdens.
The film Yanagawa Horiwari Monogatari opens with this sentiment. Directed by Isao Takahata, who often collaborated with Hayao Miyazaki at Studio Ghibli, it started out as an animation. However, the plan pivoted to a documentary because the canals’ story proved to be too interesting.
As the film depicts, canal towns like Yanagawa used to dot the Japanese landscape, far from a rare sight. However, this sight gradually disappeared alongside rapid economic growth. Yanagawa’s canals were also on the brink of oblivion, but thanks to a last-minute effort, they returned to life, turning Yanagawa into a city of canal-cruising – a certifiable rarity.
Picture the scene in your mind: Springtime. Rice paddies spread across the plains. A stream flowing through a village amidst this quilt. An easy landscape for Japanese people to imagine. It may perhaps be a memory from your childhood, dear listener, of time spent with your grandparents. Perhaps the kind of experience that is relatable to people all around the world, not just in Japan.
But what about your children’s generation, or your grandchildren’s? Will they even be able to imagine the sight of a stream flowing through a village at springtime? Just as Yanagawa would not have revived without the residents’ core memories of playing in the river as children, the landscapes in our memories may someday turn to actions that shape the future.
Even in Yanagawa, the vision of the past is not fully restored. Concrete dikes were built to restore the river’s flow as part of the canal restoration efforts. Unlike with earthen embankments, plants cannot grow from concrete, meaning that Yanagawa’s original ecosystem has not yet recovered. The quality of the water is also not what it once was – back in the day, people used canal water for everything, even for cooking rice.
How much of the Yanagawa of old, the city of water flowing through your memories, can we pass down to future generations? It is our hope that they too will want to experience this Canal Cruise – this symbol of a good old memory.
* This guide was created based on documents and interviews and includes some interpretation done by us at ON THE TRIP. Theories differ between experts, so try to find out what really happened on your travels!
ON THE TRIP Editorial Staff
Writer：Akihito Shiga
Photography：Hiroshi Honma
Narration：Otoha Nara
Translation: Jean Paul Souki Pacheco