THE HORIKAWA RIVER Rediscovering the Horikawariver! 堀堀 My Town My River a History of the Horikawariver 川川
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THE HORIKAWA RIVER Rediscovering the HorikawaRiver! 堀堀 my town my river A History of the HorikawaRiver 川川 Blossoming Flowers along the HorikawaRiver (This Ukiyoefan print belongs to “Nagoya Meisho UchiwaeShu”, an illustrated series of twenty-two famous locations in the Nagoya region, a collection owned by the Nagoya City Museum.) Initial Excavation of and Subsequent Changes to the HorikawaRiver The Birth of Nagoya r ve Ri Before the construction of Nagoya Castle, the central area in this region was in ai Ya on da Sh R Kiyosu. However, KiyosuCastle was considered too small and vulnerable to flooding. iv Therefore, Shogun IeyasuTokugawa decided to construct a new castle, Nagoya Castle, er in the northwestern corner of the Nagoya Plateau in 1610, movingthe entire town from Nagoya Kiyosuto Nagoya in the process. The “Kiyosugoshi”, as it is known (lit. “move from Castle Kiyosu”) led to the birth of a new town, Nagoya. Nagoya Plateau The Excavation of the HorikawaRiver Shinhorikawa River The castle town surrounding Nagoya Castle was built in an inlandarea, far away from AtsutanohamaPort. However, to transport mass quantities of essential commodities such as rice, vegetables, fish and salt to the castle town it would be Horikawa necessary to utilize shipping. River Atsuta Therefore in 1610, in the same year that construction of the Nagoya Castle started, Nakagawa General Masanori Fukushima excavated a river along the western edge of the Nagoya Canal Plateau, connecting Atsuta with the Nagoya Castle town. This marked the birth of the HorikawaRiver, a 6 km long and 22-87 meter wide river, flowing from Habashita, West of Nagoya Castle, to Atsuta on the coast. The riverhead wasconnected via a waterway to the Tatsunokuchidraining gate that had been set up in the outer moat of The Nagoya Plateau and HorikawaRiver Nagoya Castle, allowing water in the outer moat to stream into the HorikawaRiver. At that time the river banks were not protected but bridgeshad been built at seven points and known as the “HorikawaNanahashi” (“Seven HorikawaBridges”). It is Minokaido Nagoya Castle thought that the GojoBridge and the TemmaBridge were brought over from the Gojo River in Kiyosu. An ornamental knob on the Gojobridge post has an inscription that reads, “GojoBridge. Constructed in June 1602”, indicating that the GojoBridge was GojoBridge built before excavation work was first carried out on the HorikawaRiver. The original Naka Bridge ornamental knob is now kept in the Nagoya Castle and a replica has been attached to TemmaBridge the bridge. NayaBridge Along the HorikawaRiver there were facilities that utilized the canal function ofthe Iidakaido river. Merchant warehouses lined the banks from the neighborhoodsurrounding the HiokiBridge NayaBridge, located adjacent to the gridded-streets of the castle town, to the upper areas of the HorikawaRiver. On the left bank, downstream of the NayaBridge, there FuruwatariBridge Saya were large-scale granaries for storing land tax rice. Residences belonging to naval kaido OtoBridge personnel such as the Magistrate of Shipping and boatmen were located around the present SuzakiBridge. Boathouses for naval ships and luxury boats (“Gozabune”) were set up around the former river mouth, in close proximity totoday’s Shirotori Garden. Large-scale lumberyards were also established, storing wood from the Kiso Atsuta Tokaido area which was also controlled by the Owarifeudal clan. HorikawaNanahashi (“The Seven HorikawaBridges”) The GojoBridge has an “old atmosphere” about it. r e v i Horikawa R River a w a k i r o H “OwariHachigunZu” “Nagoya Zu”(“Picture of Nagoya”) An ornamental knob on (“Picture of the Eight OwariCounties”) (owned by the HosaLibrary) the Gojobridge post (owned by the HosaLibrary) Copied in 1733 (approx.) (owned by Nagoya Castle Copied between 1789-1804. The Nagoya Castle was located at the end of Administration Office) The HorikawaRiver was an important the HorikawaRiver. The era name is inscribed. passageway between the castle town and the sea. Changes to the HorikawaRiver Redirection of Waterways Excavation of the GoyosuiWaterway to Convey Water from the ShonaiRiver r e iv The GoyosuiWaterway was excavated in 1663 to allow water to flow into the R Y i a a d n a Nagoya Castle moat. Water was taken from the ShonaiRiver at Ryusenjiin present-day o h R S iv DaikoRiver e Moriyama Ward and passed through a culvert under the YadaRiver, eventually r streaming into the castle moat. As a result of this, water taken from the ShonaiRiver Egawa Nagoya Castle streamed into the HorikawaRiver, which had no source, via the Nagoya Castle moat. River Connecting the DaikoRiver with the HorikawaRiver Horikawa The DaikoRiver flowed west from Daikoin the RokugoVillage (present-day River Daikoin Higashi Ward) and streamed into the EgawaRiver. Excavation of the HorikawaRiver in 1610 In July 1767, heavy rains caused the embankment of the YadaRiver to collapse, resulting in great damage with flood waters reaching as far as Habashita. Therefore in the winter of 1784, construction work was carried out on the DaikoRiver, redirecting i its course to merge with the HorikawaRiver. Thus, the length of the HorikawaRiver u y s a yo w was significantly extended in the northeast, incorporating waterstreaming into it from o r te G a the DaikoRiver as well as water flowing in from the ShonaiRiver via the Goyosui W Waterway. The Excavation of the KurokawaRiver The KurokawaRiver (named after HaruyoshiKurokawa, the engineer who Horikawa designed it) was excavated in 1876-1877 to enable ship transportation between Nagoya River and Inuyama, and to irrigate agricultural farmland. To achieve this, improvements Excavation of the GoyosuiWaterway in 1663 were made on the DaikoRiver and its course was redirected. The KurokawaRiver was excavated to branch off from the ShonaiRiver at the MizuwakeBridge in Moriyama Ward, passing under the YadaRiver before streaming into the HorikawaRiver. Downstream Reclamation Work and Extension of the HorikawaRiver Daiko River Reclamation works were carried out in the lower reaches of the HorikawaRiver during the Edo period to facilitate the development of paddy fields and later, in the Meiji period, to facilitate the construction of the Port of Nagoya and the establishment of an industrial area. As a consequence, the HorikawaRiver was extended to reach its current total length of 16.2km. Horikawa River Connecting DaikoRiver to the Horikawa River in 1784 Extension via Reclamation Works The Shirotori Lumberyard Water Gate er iv During embankment works R a w carried out on the HorikawaRiver in ka Atsuta Shinden ro u 2001, evidence of former in 1647 K embankment-protection was found FunakataShinden around the water gate. The stone pile in 1675 that was discovered is presumed to Meiji Shinden in 1878 Horikawa have been built during the Edo River period and has now been designated AtsutamaeShinden Kizaemon Excavation of the KurokawaRiver in 1877 Shindenin 1754 for preservation. in 1800 Sakura HimuroSotoshinden Shinden in 1868 in 1837 r e v i Lot No.5 Lot No.1 R in 1910 a in 1907 w a k Lot No.2 i r in 1905 o H Lot in Lot No.6 Horikawa 1936 in 1920 River Present The HorikawaRiver: Protecting the City from Flood Damage The most important function of a river is to ensure the safe carriage of water. Flood Shonaigawa disasters can occur when heavy rainfall causes a sudden increasein the volume of water Bridge ShonaiRiver Horikawa flowing through a river. Additionally, infectious diseases can spread if drainage in urban Ya River Basin da Ri areas is not sufficient. ver The HorikawaRiver has assumed a leading role in protecting the region from flood Nagoya Castle Chiyoda damage. The griddedstreets of Nagoya city are located on the Nagoya Plateau and are Bridge Horikawa therefore exposed to little risk of flooding. However, the northern and western areas of River Sakae Ikeshita the plateau are located on low ground and have suffered numerousfloods over the years. Shinhorikawa River Basin Records indicate that embankments along the YadaRiver collapsed in 1767 with flood Basin Area 51.9km2 waters spreading as far as the area surrounding Nagoya Castle’s HabashitaGate, forcing Gokiso locals to move around by watercraft. The DaikoRiver, which had been flowing into the Nakagawa Canal EgawaRiver, was consequently redirected to flow into the HorikawaRiver in 1784. Kanayama ShinhorikawaRiver Moreover, the embankment of the HorikawaRiver collapsed due to the IseBay Typhoon in 1959 and the middle and downstream areas suffered severe damage during Hibino Horita high tide surges. As a result of this, an embankment to protect against tidal surges was MinatoWard Office built along Nagoya Port as was the tidal gate at the mouth of the HorikawaRiver. Before the sewerage system was equipped domestic householdwastewater ran into ditches before collecting in the main sewerage course and streaming into the Horikawa Shinhorikawa River. The biggest tributary of the HorikawaRiver was the MurasakiRiver. Looking at The Horikawa River River Basin Horikawa old maps of the HorikawaRiver, there were watercourses which ran from north to south Area at present amidst the griddedstreets and from east to west along Hirokoji-dori. These watercourses River gathered wastewater from urban areas and flowed into the HorikawaRiver at the location Nakagawa Canal i of the present ShinsuzakiBridge. azak Yam Now that a sewerage system has been constructed, domestic household wastewater r Rive flows into drainpipes before being treated in wastewater treatment plants and finally discharged into the river system. The HorikawaRiver basin area utilizes a combined Flooded areas along sewerage system whereby wastewater and rainwater flow though thesame channels. the HorikawaRiver due When it rains, rainwater up to a certain amount is treated at sewerage treatment plants but to the IseBay Typhoon once rainfall levels exceed a certain amount, it flows into rainwater outlet rooms located in the city region and is discharged into the HorikawaRiver. In this way, the Horikawa River and sewerage system play a key role in protecting the cityfrom flooding.