Original subtitles

A Nibariki Film

Suimonbashi: Floodgate Bridge

In the days when Japan was poor

each village had its small rivers.

They murmured between their banks

blooming with violets and lotus flowers.

Children fished for carp and chased summer fireflies.

In the days when Japan was poor

each town had its canals.

The water wasn't always clean.

But pausing for a moment

on a bank or a bridge

helped ease life's burdens.

References to water

are frequent in Japanese sayings about social interaction.

“Draw water into your own paddy.” (Be selfish.)

“Raise the sluice gate” and unleash a flood of tears.

In the days when Japan was poor

water was always close at hand.

The Story of Yanagawa Waterways

The Chikugo is Kyushu's largest river.

On its left bank is the vast South Chikugo plain.

Yanagawa, Fukuoka lies on the plain at the river mouth.

It's a small city of 46,000.

Its southwest part

lies on reclaimed land.

These lines of houses show where old sea walls once stood,

visible evidence of 500 years of land reclamation.

A unique web of waterways threads through the city's north.

This extensive, meandering network of canals

occupies over 20% of the city's surface area.

The Okinohata River runs through town.

The central area was shaped by old boundaries and the waterways.

It was built in early Edo times.

It prospered as the castle town

of the ruling Tachibana clan.

The town has three main districts:

Mercantile Yanagawa, Shirouchi “Castle” and Okinohata port.

Canals run in every direction.

The city center is only four square kilometers.

But it has 60 km of waterways.

The whole 36 sq. km city has

470 km of waterways.

This map shows the late-18th century castle town.

The town at that time.

And this is what it looks like now.

Many areas have been filled in since the Meiji era.

But the sprawling network of waterways is still striking.

Why are there so many canals?

Is this area so blessed with water?

Why were they built?

What were they used for?

And what is their relationship to Yanagawa's people today?

Part 1: Channels of Life

A Sketch of the Waterways

It fell in! Uh-oh!

There are few barriers between Yanagawa people and their water.

People understand the water and respect its risks.

This school backs up to a canal.

Older kids teach first-graders how to row.

Morning in Yanagawa.

The water is at its cleanest from fresh inflows overnight.

The canal's carp are spawning.

It's late March, when the water warms.

A magpie.

Better known here as Koge crows.

In Japan, they live only in this region.

The route used by tour boats is cleaned every morning by local staff.

This cleaning boat handles the other canals.

It's from the city's waterway environment bureau.

This canal runs behind houses.

It's difficult to see from the street.

Household waste is a real problem.

Building sewers costs time and money,

so people are requested to treat their own waste

before returning it to the canal.

Tenacious crayfish thrive.

Mullet live in the broader channels.

Grassfish eat duckweed.

Prussian carp.

The season, weather, temperature and water level

all can affect water quality.

It can suddenly change from clear to murky.

After a long journey, the canal network reaches the river mouth.

With the touch of an oar the water turns cloudy.

The water must accept the city's sewage.

Even at its clearest, this water is not beautiful.

The canals of Yanagawa

may be somewhat polluted,

but they generously take in the clean and dirty.

They harbor many living things.

They are a bountiful source of comfort and pleasure.

Part 2: Using the Water, Boats and Moats

Features and Uses of the Canal Network

The Futatsugawa Dam, 4 km up the Okinohata River.

The Futatsugawa Dam's intake gate, from downstream.

Water flows through it to the Yanagawa canals.

There wasn't always a gate here.

Once boats could freely carry cargo to upstream towns.

On the left, the Okinohata; on the right, the Futatsugawa.

You can see where the dam takes in water.

The Futatsugawa is man-made, dug to divert water to Yanagawa.

Modifications have narrowed it.

In 1960, a dam was built upstream on the Yabe River.

It reduced the water reaching Yanagawa.

But the Futatsugawa remains the sole supply for Yanagawa's canals.

When it reaches Yanagawa,

the Futatsugawa flows through three intakes

into large north-south canals.

The Jobori main intake gate.

Except on rare occasions

it always remains open to boat traffic.

Most of Yanagawa's canals

don't run alongside streets.

They run behind the houses.

Now roads running along the banks are common.

But not in the old days.

Back then, the canals themselves were roads.

Nothing could beat boats for transporting bulky cargo.

Flat-bottom boats could traverse narrow canals.

An old merchant dock survives in the heart of town.

There's another reason why the canals run behind the houses.

They also served as the city's water supply.

Years ago the water flowed faster.

We used it for drinking.

In the morning we'd draw water.

We'd put sand and other things in earthenware urns.

Then we'd filter the water in the urn, and drink it.

And in those days we washed

rice and other things in the canal.

We brushed our teeth in it.

We washed our faces in it in the morning.

All using canal water.

We scooped up water with our palms.

The water was that clean.

We drew water at those steps

early every morning.

That's where we got it.

The water may be dirty now,

but it's still something that must be taken care of.

The city had no high-quality groundwater.

In 1935, a water supply began.

Until then the canals provided all the water, even for drinking.

Back then, drawing water was an everyday task.

Very different from just turning on the tap.

Hard work, wasn't it?

Yes, it was!

You needed a lot of strength.

That's why in our house

the boys had to do it.

Early in the morning, at 5 o'clock.

That's when the water was cleanest.

They got woken up

and had to fetch it.

They drew 15 buckets of water into this big urn.

Once in a while I helped them.

But I'm not strong.

I could only draw five or six.

After ten buckets my arms ached.

My feet and clothes got soaking wet.

It was all right in summer but in winter the north wind blew.

It was so cold, my hands went numb.

Drawing water was the worst morning chore.

Afterward the kids went back inside.

They went back to bed.

And they slept until it was time for school.

Sitting a moment A girl's shadow quivers

The water-drawing place

It wasn't just in Yanagawa where water was drawn this way.

Many towns and villages on the plain

drank from rivers, not wells.

An Edo-era public water-drawing place.

Gossip flourishes, just as it would at a well.

Ready!

Yanagawa needs no fire hydrants.

Canals supply all the water for firefighting.

Water circles Yanagawa Castle Three times, seven times

And lotus flowers bloom

So wrote the Yanagawa-born poet Hakushu Kitahara.

Canals wind round and round the castle

forming a broad moat.

This land is flat and lacking in stones.

So stone walls are few.

The castle and Shirouchi, where samurai resided,

had thick ear then banks to protect against floods and attacks.

Atop the embankments

thick groves of camphor, nettle and sumac remain.

When the water passes beside a house

it takes on the look of a garden pond.

The garden of this house is right across the waterway.

They cross the waterway by boat for gardening.

In this garden the canal acts just like a pond.

Here a pond's water is drawn from the canal.

The Tojima garden is an Important Cultural Asset.

It follows the same design.

This minor canal running through the town has no name.

Little Kadogawa canal has abutted the roadway for ages.

From above, the canals look narrow.

Yet their banks offer the city important green spaces.

Many Yanagawa residents don't even know about

canals running right behind stores where they shop.

These hidden canals are used as shared backyards.

A privilege exclusive to those living on their banks.

But step aboard a boat

and it's a whole new experience.

You can float gently along, seeing the town's private side.

Here the bank has become a promenade.

Once a public water source and transport artery,

a canal may now be part of a private back garden.

People have been rediscovering Yanagawa's canals

thanks to flat-bottom tourist boats and canal-side paths.

The waterfront is now a public space for residents and visitors.

Part 3: “3 years to take Yanagawa, 3 months to take Higo”

The Structure of Waterway Networks

The castle of the Tachibana clan once stood here.

But it's now gone.

The five-story keep was burned down in the Meiji era.

The castle walls were torn down.

The moat, filled for rice paddies.

Its stones were used to build dikes for land reclamation.

The Meiji Restoration turned a samurai town into a rice-growing village.

As in other feudal domains

former samurai became landlords and leased out their property.

Fortunately the canals proved useful for irrigation.

People built their own bridges to connect to the castle town.

This was a “one-penny” toll bridge.

The “Danpira” toll bridge.

The name fuses those of its two builders, Dan and Hirata.

Let's look at canal crossings.

At bridges, streets narrow the channel sharply.

It's a V-shape, narrowest at the bottom.

When the canals themselves were wider, the squeeze was greater.

When a waterway narrows suddenly

it acts like a dam, slowing the current's flow.

The current is gentle and easy to bridge.

So why are even new bridges built this way?

All the water for the vast canal network is from the Futatsugawa.

The land is totally flat.

But water does flow, finding its way along the slightest inclines.

How are the canals kept full?

How is the water made to flow throughout the network?

How is the water level maintained?

That's where these bridges come in.

When heavy rains raise the water level

the V-shaped dams adjust the flow naturally,

so the upstream side won't flood.

These projecting V-dams are called “motase” (holding dams)

Yanagawa's Clean River Project states:

The dams fulfill many functions that

the river no longer can.

They revive the current where it would otherwise stagnate.

They are essential to revitalizing the waters.

The dams perform crucial tasks.

Thanks to them the waterways have survived.

The weakened current flows

and eddies form more vigorously.

The eddies oxygenate the water.

The invigorated flow purifies the water.

The Jobori intake during Edo times.

The swirling currents around the Futatsugawa sluice

evoke an era when the river flowed abundantly.

The water flowing through Yanagawa

also supplies downstream villages

with precious water for irrigation and daily use.

To ensure the downstream water supply

part of a gate may be cut away to allow a certain flow.

This gate is 1/4 cut away.

And rules state that this gate must be raised to the first hole.

This sluice gate's pool provides water to farms downstream

and stabilizes the canal's water level.

Originally boards were inserted here.

Only water that overflowed them could reach the pool.

Water flows downstream through another sluice.

Here's the same system.

Having performed many tasks,

canal water passes Okinohata's docks.

As the tide ebbs

the canal waters drain into the man-made outer harbor.

Near the harbor are two drainage sluices called “nicho-ibi”.

The one nicknamed “onna-ibi”' is usually in operation.

It maintains the water level

because only overflow drains through its funnel.

An overall view of Yanagawa's canal network.

Aside from the outlets and supplementary inlets

no gates bar boat traffic.

Originally bridges had high clearances

so boats could pass under.

To make water flow from one channel into a web of canals on flat land,

artificial torrents and pools were made.

Volume and flow were controlled automatically.

So not a drop of water was wasted.

No wonder Yanagawa people call their canals a precise machine.

There's an old saying in Yanagawa:

3 years to take Yanagawa, 3 months to take Higo, no time at all for Hizen.

That's how long it would take to breach their defenses.

In an emergency, two of the three intakes could be closed,

flooding the town's fortified east side.

And with the sea and a river on the north, south and west,

the castle became an island fortress that repelled attackers.

This “hidden inlet” would take in water secretly.

Though there's just one inlet, the V-dams and overflow gates

guide life-giving water into the canal network.

They also support farm villages downstream.

The branches of trees planted on the banks are used for fuel.

By the following year, the branches regrow.

It's not clear exactly how the defenses worked

but they seem ideal for a riverside castle.

The “Hakushu Eve” floating parade is held on November 1st.

People from across Japan join locals honoring the Yanagawa poet

Hakushu Kitahara.

Part 4: Regulations on River Drinking Water

When the Water was Pure

Flit, flitter firefly Boating home from the theater

On Yanagawa's canals

An old lantern with the family crest

Lulling them gently to sleep

Flit, flitter firefly

Flit, flitter firefly

Hakushu's poetry tells us that the canals were pure enough

even for fireflies and delicate fish.

His family raised a type of fish that thrives

only in clean water.

Hakushu's family home was outside the moat

on a dead-end canal. The family made sake.

That, too, speaks of the water's purity.

Still, making sake sometimes required getting

large barrels of water from upstream.

This soda-pop factory is Kyushu's second-oldest.

A treasure: the oldest English soda-pop bottles.

At bridge's edge, warehouses Lit by the setting sun

On the canals Water hyacinths bloom

Hakushu's poem made these canal warehouses famous.

Brewers of soy sauce, miso and sake needed pure water.

So did bathhouses. Disposing of waste water was a problem.

A large filter pond was set up. Fouling the canals was forbidden.

In 1896, a prefectural ordinance was established.

Regulations on Drinking Water.

Article 10

Dumping any material or waste water

into a river is prohibited.

Home waste water was never dumped into canals.

It was poured into a hole dug in the backyard.

Diapers are still washed this way.

The custom lives on.

Farmers grow vegetables next to the house.

They dump waste water there.

The vegetables grow and the dirty water is disposed of.

To ensure clean water in the morning

washing in the canals during the night was prohibited.

Article 14

From I am to 8 am

no washing is permitted.

Disposing of materials that contaminate drinking water

is forbidden at all times.

Other regulations include:

Article 9

No raising of birds in the river.

No washing or placing of animals, rickshaws or carts in the river.

Article 11

No disposing of trash or refuse on the riverbank.

Article 7

No houses or walls may be built over the river.

A parking lot built over a canal.

Takiji Mattori, 83, is the oldest working boatman on the canals.

In the past, water was used with extreme care around here.

What precautions did people take?

In the old days, we always dug a hole

to drain all kinds of waste water.

We kept it out of the canal.

When I was a kid, we'd scoop the water up by hand and drink it.

We'd swim in it and play in it.

We weren't allow to swim

before 10 o'clock.

There was a patrol. If we broke the rule, they'd scold us.

They were strict.

If you swam where it wasn't allowed?

They'd scold us.

If we swam in the wrong places it might've caused accidents.

Used as a pool, the canals produced an Olympic swimmer.

Of course the worst thing you could do then,

just like now,

was to go to the bathroom in the canals.

They said, “The Lord of the Canal will punish you.”

“The kappa water imp will come!”

I don't know if kappas really exist.

But when I was small, people even said they'd wrestled them.

A samurai ancestor cut off this kappa's hand.

It's a family treasure.

Kids prepare for a kappa festival.

To ward off kappa, boys ink their faces

and girls wear lipstick.

The festival is to thank and pay respect to the river.

The kappa tradition lingers in the play of local children.

“Look out! Bam, bam, bam!”

“Don't look back, OK?”

When you make a river offering, don't look back!

The kappa will get you!

Part 5: Reshaping Japan

Waterways Ruined

Yabe, Kumamoto Prefecture

Hoshino, Fukuoka Prefecture

Once each place and its people had its own water culture.

It was based on local conditions.

People applied wisdom born of centuries of struggle.

Some of their structures survive

and remain part of people's work and lives.

They do their work well.

Shimabara, Nagasaki Prefecture

But such survivors are few,

those that people cared for and worked to preserve.

Our relationship with water has changed dramatically.

Today rigid technology ignores local factors.

Water is sealed up in pipes and concrete.

Living at the water's edge has been sacrificed to convenience.

Intimacy with water is forgotten.

Our water inheritance

is treated as a nuisance.

In recent decades

much of it has vanished, along with its local meaning.

Asakura, Fukuoka Prefecture

A famous example is Asakura's triple waterwheel.

It was preserved only by

people's commitment and effort.

Yanagawa's little canals still flow along as they always have.

Many people would oppose any attempt

to turn these beautiful canals into concrete sewers.

But ten years ago

these canals were filled with sludge.

Water no longer flowed.

They were smelly trash dumps, breeding insect pests.

In the 1960s,

Japan entered a period of rapid growth and urbanization.

As eating habits changed, more animal products were consumed.

New kitchens had running water.

Plastic drainpipes dumped waste water

from homes right into canals.

Unburnable plastic garbage accumulated rapidly.

So most towns replaced their canals and rivers

with underground concrete sewers.

By 1970, Yanagawa's canals were also on the brink.

Newspapers mocked Yanagawa as “mosquito city.”

“The waterways are weeping” ran the headlines.

Reclamation and factory waste further worsened the pollution.

It wasn't just the smaller canals in town.

Hakushu's beloved hyacinths and wide moats were a tangled mess.

Boat traffic came to a standstill.

Pale flowers in a farm village canal:

Water hyacinth.

“I always wanted to see Yanagawa.

“It looks so beautiful in the photo books.

“For me it was a mystical place.

“But actually coming here proved depressing.

“The waterfront area was absolutely filthy.

“Please take better care of your town.

“Keep Yanagawa clean and beautiful.

“Please!”

Visitors to Hakushu's home left comments like this.

City authorities promoting tourism struggled.

Local writer Kazuo Dan

complained to his friend, the mayor of Yanagawa:

We have only mosquitoes, not even shubuta.

Shubuta are river minnows eaten after being stewed in soy sauce.

The water of the moat was really the life of Yanagawa.

It was precious.

I've lived at one end of the moat since I was a kid.

Former mayor Sugio Koga I've lived at one end of the moat since I was a kid.

I grew up drinking that water.

When I was in grade school

I crossed the Miake Bridge,

to draw water in Okinohata.

Every morning, at sunrise, I'd come here to draw water.

That's what we drank.

With those childhood memories, I became mayor.

The water was polluted and no longer used.

The moat got dirtier and dirtier.

I felt sad about that.

I thought of dredging the moat.

Although our city was poor, we used pumps

to dredge the main canals.

The old inner moat boating course.

So the main canals got a little better.

But then there were all

the small yet vital canals in town.

They were hopelessly dirty, all but untouchable.

They were stagnant and filled with garbage.

And they reeked, filling the entire city with the stench.

I wondered what we should do.

Back then, the citizens had no interest in cleaning the water.

I was at a loss.

Then I thought of

covering the canals with concrete, as other cities had.

They'd become like sewers.

The filthy water would be hidden.

Covering the minor canals with concrete seemed

like a good plan.

I spoke to the city council about getting government aid.

I thought the city could be improved, at some expense.

It was a 5-year project.

All but the main canals would be covered with concrete.

The plan came together.

The Yanagawa Sewage Project.

The national government would bear 60% of the 2 billion yen cost.

The main canals of the four districts around the moat

would become open concrete sewers.

The smaller canals would become culverts or U-shaped ditches.

According to this 1977 plan,

beautiful canals would be lined with concrete.

The main canal would carry a sluggish trickle of sewage.

The canals of watery Yanagawa would be gone.

A real tragedy.

But things had deteriorated past repair.

Modernization had driven out canals all over Japan.

And the little canals had all but disappeared.

It would be enough just to save the castle moat.

And to do that

the smaller canals would have to become sewers.

That's how people thought of the plan

seeing the state of the canals at that time.

Many citizens demanded hygienic improvements.

The city council and city officials agreed.

But why did Yanagawa have so many canals?

Enough that no one would mind as they gradually vanished?

Were they only for water supply, firefighting and transit?

No longer needed for those things

had the canals really become totally useless?

Part 6: The Plain Made by the Sea

Origin of the Waterways

Yanagawa faces the Ariake Sea.

The Ariake has Japan's largest tidal variation.

Between the year's highest and lowest tides

the difference is over 6.5 m.

The receding tide leaves behind a wide mud flat.

It's inhabited by rare animals.

Mudskippers.

Fiddler crabs.

Mud springers.

Salt and fresh water mix freely.

The river brings ample nutrients, the tide dissolved oxygen.

100-plus species of fish and shellfish call Ariake home,

as do some unique fishing methods.

A slender gaff is skillfully used to catch clams.

The mud of the flat has very fine particles.

It sucks in feet like quicksand.

To traverse it requires mud skis.

Winter seaweed cultivation.

The sea appears tranquil

but the high tide rushes in fast.

Sand from the river

is churned to fine silt by the tides.

It muddies the water of the Ariake Sea.

At high tide this fine silt

is deposited on the seabed just offshore.

There it forms vast mud flats.

Coarser mud piles up where the tide enters Okinohata.

Where the mud flats are deep

and more often dry than flooded, reeds grow thickly.

It begins to resemble dry land.

A bountiful expanse of reeds and rice is created.

Transition of the Osaka Plain

Since the seas stopped rising, Japan's coastal areas

have been growing as rivers carry silt to the sea.

Transition of the Tsukushi Plain

The Chikugo River silt doesn't simply fill up the sea.

First the Ariake tides turn it into mud flats.

Then it becomes dry land.

Humans have accelerated this process through years of land reclamation.

Yanagawa's Nishikamachi district.

Many ancient Yayoi vessels have been found here.

The Yayoi occupied this place soon after it emerged.

They built houses on slightly higher ground.

They sowed rice in the marshes,

battled with water, tide and drought,

tamed the land and then expanded it.

They transformed it into rich farmland.

What made it possible?

Waterways, the result of herculean ditch digging.

Life here would be impossible

without waterways.

The Yayoi built up settlements circled with ditches

to keep out flood and tide.

They excavated low-lying damp ground to improve drainage.

They made use of rain that collected in the ditches.

Ditches meant life in that era.

Large irregular ditches in Mizuma, north Yanagawa.

Most are found around dwellings.

Local place names are revealing.

Water-marsh, Bog-land, Inlet-pond, Raft-ditch...

As their meanings indicate, this was a swamp

until reclamation began here centuries ago.

The lower the land and the worse the drainage

the deeper and wider the ditches needed to be.

Just look at these ditches.

How much time and labor did they consume?

Our ancestors must have sweated blood

to carve ditches and channels into this low, flat land.

The water level is below field level.

Only human power can raise it.

Defying gravity with human effort

people laboriously raised water into the fields.

A family

could not cultivate more than a hectare in this way.

Now pumps have freed people from this heavy burden.

Dealing with water

no longer requires strenuous effort.

Only the benefits of the canals remain.

Now they are like reservoirs for the fields: drought insurance.

Canals can be drained in winter

to make dry fields for wheat.

Or used to grow water-loving rushes.

These rushes are used in tatami mats.

This is Japan's second-largest tatami producing region.

Part 7. Managing the Water

The Water System Completed

Yoshimasa Tanaka captured Mitsunari Ishida at Sekigahara.

In 1601, he moved into Yanagawa Castle

as lord of the wealthy Chikugo domain.

In only eight years he took on many projects.

Building the castle town and its canal system.

Water system improvements and land reclamation.

He laid an agricultural foundation in Chikugo.

Tanaka is enshrined at Yanagawa's Shinsho-ji temple.

Many feudal lords of his era

undertook vast public works to improve their domains' output.

The forced labor burden on the populace was heavy.

In that era the face of the land was reshaped.

Land productivity rose dramatically across Japan.

But this reconstruction

followed very different ideas from that of the modern postwar miracle.

The canal outlet at the Okinohata docks.

The tide rises and falls daily, flooding twice a month.

Fishing boats return on the tide.

High tide.

The Okinohata River runs through town.

At low tide it shows another face.

Boats stuck in the mud at low tide float free as it rises.

A unique way of mooring boats.

It keeps them from dangling in the air at low tide.

Upstream Yanagawa. Flood tide back flows through a drain gate.

It empties to the Okinohata.

The Nicho-ibi sluice gates.

High tide. Harbor water level is above canal level.

Canal water can't drain. It is trapped.

The drainage gate at low tide.

This simple wooden valve has held back the tide for centuries.

Onna-ibi cross-section.

The rising tide forces the valve closed.

As the tide recedes, drainage resumes.

With Yanagawa below sea level at high tide,

the canals cannot drain. Until the tide recedes,

they must store water even in the heaviest rain.

Water seeks its level on the slightest slope.

Extensive canals aren't enough

to stop flooding.

The town's V-dams and overflow dams.

Narrow points at road overpasses.

There are many types of sluices and dams.

These holding dams, built at various points, maintain water levels.

They help the water spread throughout the canal network.

Water is stored until the tide recedes and drainage can resume.

The reclaimed land is

divided into blocks by dikes perpendicular to the slope.

The amount of water flowing from block to block is controlled.

Even in heavy rain, each block stores water

not releasing it downstream.

Water retained in these lateral canals is drained at low tide.

This 1965 map shows the details.

Retaining trenches in swampy Mizuma.

Long ago the jumble of ditches were linked up.

They still served as reservoirs

even when supplied by river water.

Independent blocks of trenches were connected

at only one place.

Along special trunk canals

water was released downstream only at a set time in the spring.

Overflow dams connected blocks.

The lower sluice is for winter's lower water levels.

Spring. The river fills the ditches.

The dams are closed in sequence.

The water is fully retained.

Retained rainfall is used in rice-growing.

Canal water is used repeatedly.

In heavy rain, dams are opened.

Not much water can flow over a single dam to drain downstream.

At high tide, none at all.

If rainfall exceeds capacity

water seeps up gradually to cover the fields.

The water recedes after a few days

leaving fertile mud but little damage.

The overflow dams retain water.

At high tide they protect areas downstream

which can't drain and would otherwise flood.

The canals maximize the amount

of rain and river water that reaches the fields.

Rain is retained where it falls.

Then it is gradually distributed.

This holding dam system overcomes difficult water circumstances.

It is the product of great labor and ingenuity.

Today rain can be dumped into rivers by pumps and pipes,

trapped with concrete dikes and quickly flushed to the sea.

Water can be had from distant dams built on strangers' land.

That's the modern throwaway mindset.

But Chikugo's holding dam system treasures nature's blessings.

It conserves energy and respects nature.

Downpour or drought, upstream and downstream collaborate.

Dam height and sluice openings adjust.

Local farmers built the system through trial and error.

The wisdom of our ancestors.

Modern water systems

subjugate nature by force, separating use from source.

Which is truly rational? Only time will tell.

Part 8: A Drop of Water, A Drop of Blood

A Battle for Water

The tides flow up the Okinohata River past Yanagawa

and reach a point just below the Isodori Dam.

Isodori Dam at low tide.

The dam keeps the river water from mixing with the salt water

conserving the river water for later use.

The Hanamune River runs north of Yanagawa to the Chikugo.

The Sakemi Dam is the last dam.

Here too a closed sluice holds the tide

SO river water isn't wasted.

Left is downstream, right is up.

The rising tide greatly raises the downstream water level.

The open gate lets downstream water back flow upstream.

The difference in the water level provides momentum.

This is called “aotori': a local means of freshwater intake.

Due to a lower specific gravity

fresh water floats on the salty high tide.

It back flows upstream through the tributary's drainage sluice

into the canals.

The aotori is ending.

The water's salt content is checked.

Once it was done by tasting.

The Chikugo erodes the land as it flows.

The tide can advance 20 km or more up the shallow riverbed.

The aotori system

is the only way people can get fresh water from this river.

In Chikugo, the sea overwhelms the river, leading to water shortages.

But the unique holding dam system saves water.

Providing just enough water

is the Yabe River flowing from the east.

The Yabe water district.

It irrigates a total of 16,400 hectares.

The system includes 78 dams.

Sluices number in the thousands.

This river has been exploited to its maximum potential.

The Yabe's source is in these mountains.

They border three prefectures.

Since 1960, when Hiugami Dam was built

to join the sources of the Yabe River,

Yanagawa has received significantly less water.

4 km downstream of Hiugami Dam.

Hanameguri, the dam furthest upstream.

Wedged in by mountains

there's no paddy land to irrigate here.

On the right bank is an inlet.

Through it water enters a canal carved into the cliffs.

It runs parallel to the river.

Where is it carrying the water?

Surprisingly, to nowhere.

It irrigates just a few fields.

Most of the water returns to the river at the next dam.

Sangamyo, 3 km downstream.

Here, the intake is on the opposite bank of the Yabe.

Again, the water enters a canal cut into the river valley cliffs.

It doesn't pass near any irrigated fields.

Running along the cliff, the canal hews to the river.

Finally it waters some terraced rice paddies along the river.

The irrigation water doesn't drain to the river.

It collects in a drainage channel.

Then it returns to the canal.

A large tributary joins the river here.

A major dam redirects the canal upstream

to receive water from the tributary.

The dam seen from the mountain.

Except when heavy rains make the dam overflow

not a drop enters the Yabe.

Kuroki Dam, 9 km downstream of Sangamyo.

Just below it, the canal rejoins the river.

Then it starts up again on the right bank.

The canal took much labor to build.

Yet it carries water that would have flowed down the river.

Why in the world was it built?

In 1620, after Tanaka's rule over Chikugo had ended

Muneshige Tachibana again ruled in Yanagawa.

He divided the Chikugo Plain between the Arima and the Tachibana clans.

The upper Yabe became the border.

Kurume's Hanamune Dam

was upstream of both clans' croplands.

This dam was a lifeline for Kurume, on the right bank.

Water taken here became the Hanamune River

which passed 32 sluices before rejoining the Chikugo.

This is still true today.

A larger Hanamune dam

would have threatened the Yanagawa domain.

All their reclaimed fields lay downstream of it.

As a countermeasure, in 1680 Yanagawa built

the Tonose Dam upstream of Hanamune.

It diverted water to the Hebaru river downstream of Hanamune.

Yanagawa's Tonose Dam.

The Tonose Bypass, known as the Yanagawa irrigation Canal.

It upset the balance of water allotment,

starting a cycle of bad will.

Kurume replied to Tonose by going 2.5 km farther upstream.

There they built the Sogouchi Dam.

In 1687, it was Yanagawa's turn.

Komino Dam and its bypass canal.

Yanagawa's first bypass was just seven years old.

Kurume's Sogouchi Dam.

Yanagawa's Komino Dam.

Both just upstream of a rival dam.

Both were built to take advantage of a river bend.

But serious difficulties followed for both domains.

The river's steep ravine made canal-building very hard.

The 9 km of Yanagawa's Sangamyo Bypass took until 1797.

Kurume's Hanameguri, started later, was done 8 years sooner.

The canal-building race lasted over 100 years.

But there was one rule to prevent a serious clash:

No taking water from tributaries starting in rival territory.

Those were absolutely off-limits.

Piling stones, chipping rock, boring tunnels

diverting tributary water. That's how the canals grew.

Forced labor severely taxed the peasants.

The water war was life-or-death.

Landslides.

Workers falling into the river and drowning.

Flowers are still offered at this deity carved in the rock.

For each drop of water, a drop of blood.

Downstream water shortages led to an upstream water war.

The sea created the wide plain.

But only the Yabe could slake its thirst.

Ditches and rivers carve through the plain.

Canals snake through the hills.

Holding dams and aotori. Proof of a struggle for water.

Part 9: Direct Appeal, Drastic Measures

Restoring the Canals

August 1985.

Typhoon No. 13 rolled through western Kyushu.

It hit just at flood tide, creating a huge surge.

It damaged fishing boats and coastal areas.

It rushed upriver and overflowed the dikes, flooding Okinohata.

Homes were flooded, causing great damage.

But the web of canals around the houses

soon absorbed the tidal overflow.

The canals prevented seawater and waste water from stagnating.

They had done a superb job.

But in 1977, they were filled with sludge.

Or already reclaimed, or due to become concrete ditches.

As I recall, it was March of 1977.

Tsutae Hiromaitsu As I recall, it was March of 1977.

Tsutae Hiromaitsu

Tsutae Hiromaitsu I was suddenly assigned the post

I was suddenly assigned the post

of section chief for the city sewers.

Yanagawa's canals were a disaster area at the time.

Nowadays there are a lot of boats

coming and going along the inner moats.

But in those days they were choked with weeds.

Boats had to use the outer moats.

I was born in a place called Kamo.

It had more canals crisscrossing it than anywhere else in Japan.

I grew up there.

I got a job at city hall.

I worked mainly on the water supply.

So I understood how rivers and land were related.

And I understood how they, in turn, related to people.

The canals had been part of people's lives for 400 years.

The situation bothered me.

Was it right to bury the canals?

Or to turn them into mere sewers?

So I appealed to the mayor.

The project was about to get started.

Section Chief Hiromatsu came to see me.

“If we give up our water, we'll never get it back.

“Nature protects water by purifying it naturally.

“If the canals are covered with concrete, Yanagawa is done for.”

That was his view.

He told me to treasure even the smallest waterway.

To work with the citizens and restore them.

Concrete was out of the question.

He stated his views with great conviction.

I knew it wouldn't be easy to overturn

a project involving the central government.

I was very wary.

But hearing Hiromatsu's passionate proposals

I realized restoration would be much better.

I gave him time to turn his ideas into a plan.

Hiromatsu won the mayor's understanding

and a six-month grace period.

He had only that long to rally support

and create a plausible counter proposal.

He immediately began research and field study.

He had to do more than just come up with a new plan

in those short six months.

He also had to win over city officials.

The very officials promoting the sewer plan.

At first I took our case to each individual.

I explained the canals' functions and contributions.

But it was too slow.

So I wrote a booklet.

“Let's Get Our Clean Water Back”

At first I had 200 copies printed. Then I had more printed.

In the end, the total was 500.

The booklet was distributed to officials and town assemblymen.

Now they could read my plan.

Until then, Hiromatsu rarely wrote even postcards.

But he toiled away at a long appeal to the citizens.

Hiromatsu's plan for Yanagawa's canals

was comprehensive, scientific and historical.

His Clean River Project had clear goals and specific plans.

The officials' plan had been shown to the public.

It had support from higher tiers of government.

It was already swinging into action.

Then came this new junior official who proposed overhauling the plan.

He won over the mayor, who completely changed course.

And that new official took charge of implementing the new plan.

Consider the difficulty he faced.

To revive the waterways, he was enlisting the help

of those who had illegally polluted them.

It demanded a courageous public servant,

energetic and decisive.

Contemporary Japanese attitudes valued convenience above all.

Machines? All-powerful. Everything else? Disposable.

Hiromatsu saw this as a great danger.

It upset him that Yanagawa was on the same path.

Hiromatsu argued to the city council members that

Yanagawa would sink if the canals were filled.

And he didn't just mean symbolically.

Under the South Chikugo Plain is Ariake clay,

mud the sea deposited as it built the land.

It's 70% water and up to 18 m thick.

It has the consistency of tofu.

Building on it can't be left to those unfamiliar with it.

It made laying foundations difficult.

In the old days people built on pine plank rafts.

The planks are visible in this canal wall.

Yanagawa's strata. Ariake clay is in red.

A diagram of soil formations.

The Shiroishi Plain

The Shiroishi Plain on the Ariake's north shore.

Canals are far fewer than in Yanagawa.

For 30 years the land has been sinking.

The plain is on the same Ariake clay as Yanagawa.

But the government directed farmers here to pump groundwater.

And the land sank two meters.

What results from massive groundwater pumping?

And from abandoning water-retaining canals?

Shiroishi's woes provide the answer.

Now Shiroishi's governments and citizens are paying

Original Road huge sums to halt subsidence.

Original Road

Demolishing bridge abutments

In Yanagawa too, many offices and hotels

depend heavily on pumped groundwater.

If the canals are lost, Yanagawa will surely sink too.

Land and canals are covered in concrete.

Groundwater is pumped

and not replenished. The soil compacts and the ground sinks.

Houses tilt.

Summer rains come.

With no place to go, water floods the sunken ground.

The sewers have drainage pumps.

But the water overflows before reaching them.

In 1977, eight places with filled-in canals

suffered flooding even in light rain.

The canals' drainage functions had to be restored.

That was the urgent first step.

The Clean River Project was the outline for reviving the canals.

We absolutely oppose burying the waterways.

The specifics of the plan were divided into three main parts.

1. Restore the canals by dredging to re-establish flow.

2. Reduce pollution by control and treatment of waste water.

3. Establish a suitable management system

with citizen participation in the clean-up.

Part 10: Living with Nature

Draining the Canals

Citizens work with the city to conduct regular clean-ups.

Do you clean the river every year?

Yes. We do it regularly.

I see.

How was it before?

Well... it was filthy, full of garbage.

You couldn't get through, but by cleaning it, now you can.

It used to have such clean water.

But you see, the houses...

Their waste water got so much worse... but now it's improving.

Because we clean it.

How was it ten years ago?

It was wriggling with mosquito larvae. A mosquito hotel.

And the years since?

In early August we clean it.

The mosquito population has been dropping since we started that.

How about floods?

Floods? When it rains?

When it rains, we have the embankment.

We don't worry much anymore. Still...

the land here is low, so it's always a concern.

We keep carp to control mosquito larvae.

The city hall people are always telling us

to keep it cleaned up. Compared to before

it's in better shape.

Our rivers are polluted now because

we have forgotten their history and contributions.

We turned our back on a tough relationship.

The key to reviving our rivers is

to think back on their history and contributions.

We must realize that this tough relationship is here for good.

This “tough relationship” described in the plan

has been revitalized in Yanagawa

thanks to the canal restoration started in 1978.

Futatsugawa Dam on the Okinohata River.

The gate is lowered to keep out trash.

This is Futatsugawa River.

All Yanagawa's water comes from here.

It's the lifeblood of the city.

Actually it's beyond our administrative area.

But it's so filthy with oil and garbage.

We must clean it every day.

Tourist association and city hall workers

and the farmers who live downstream

cooperate in removing the weeds.

Every summer

weeds sprout to interfere with the current.

Especially in dry years the weeds grow so thick

that they all but stop the flow.

So we have to come every day

to remove the garbage and the weeds.

A May drought.

The water is low, stagnant, dirty. Fish gasp for air.

Water polluted by waste water from shops and homes

flows slowly through an outer channel

through weeds and past farms. It grows cleaner along the way.

No new water is added.

This is natural purification.

But in flat places where the flow is sluggish, trash accumulates.

The old adage “three feet down it'll be clean” just isn't true.

Restrictions on waste water discharge and

careful management have always been crucial.

The Clean River Project requires that

septic tanks perform three-level treatment.

City employees periodically survey water quality.

A group of fishermen's wives is trying to ban certain detergents.

Anyone home?

Your soap delivery for May.

AN eel restaurant's grease trap.

Many homes now treat their waste, but enforcement's not easy.

Cold February.

Rich families used to draw the cool clear canal water into urns,

which were sealed and buried.

It became summer drinking water.

A moat intake gate.

In winter it is closed with many heavy boards.

An event known poetically as “mizuochi”; water-dropping.

Nicho-ibi Dam.

The sluice is opened wide to release the water.

In 1978, the canals were

revived and began to flow again.

The forgotten mizuochi was also resumed,

moved from autumn to winter due to seaweed farming.

The canal dry spell was extended to two weeks.

Hakushu wrote:

“In late October, in preparation

“for the autumn festival, everyone helps

“close all the canal intakes.

“The water dries up, and the fish and the weeds are removed.

“The mud is dredged out.

“For children, mizuochi is an irreplaceable, enjoyable event.”

As the water level drops, the nets swing into action.

Anyone can catch a fish now.

Carp and minnows are caught in the nets.

Fishermen can catch fish at sea.

But can they do as well with river fish?

A veteran with decades of practice.

Fish gather under bridges where the channel narrows.

Drop a net here and you can catch a whole school at one go.

This man runs a river tour firm at the foot of the bridge.

No tours run during mizuochi, of course.

In Hakushu's day

children played in the river during mizuochi.

Not these days. The water is chilly and unclean.

The V-shape under the bridges becomes very clear.

River tour and tourist association employees cut the weeds.

When the water was used for everything, including drinking,

the townspeople held an annual clean-up during mizuochi.

Exposing the canal bottom to the sun replenishes its oxygen.

Regional and local waterway officials tour

the emptied canals, seeing where repairs are needed.

Everyone pitches in to clean up.

Mud from the Ariake and dumped garbage

are forced out of the drainage sluice.

The jet hose is a powerful weapon against sludge.

It's been in use since 1978.

Nishikamachi in Yanagawa.

Ditches that filled up

over the summer are drained in the autumn.

The moat was drained

for the first time in four years

after drawing enough water for the winter.

Before pumps

people worked sequential step waterwheels all night.

That drudgery is long past.

People wait for things to dry out.

Drinking sake and eating just-caught fish.

Forty years after the war

class distinctions are gone.

Everybody can join the fun.

Some folks can't wait, and head for the moat.

Grab at the fish and they'll leap away.

If you're gentle, the fish come along easy.

“Like embracing a woman,” says one veteran.

The carp are shared or sold at market.

Posing for a souvenir photo.

A carp is prepared.

So fresh, it still jumps after being cut up.

Cheers!

A big catch celebrated.

Laughter from the moat-drying party echoes in the chilly night.

People dig canals to conserve water

then dirty it again.

Their waste sustains duckweeds and water grasses.

Fish flourish, mud thickens.

Nature partially purifies the water.

Then water plants are cut and mud dredged to become fertilizer.

People catch and eat the fish.

Kept clean, everything in the canals is useful.

Such recycling was typical here before chemical fertilizers.

In early spring, before taking in water, mud was dredged.

It cleared out the canals while providing fields with fertilizer.

Living with nature, disposing of waste by recycling.

Our forebears managed it superbly.

Why can't we do the same, using modern technology?

Water flows into the cleaned channels

and the river festival begins.

Prayers are offered against drought and flood.

April, just after Mizuma's spring canal filling.

Kamo's children gather for a river festival.

Now you take your left hand, see? Mind you don't get hurt.

Use the upper part as a handle. Grip the lower part.

Bend it over from the other side.

Careful!

OK?

Put it in the hole.

It's done.

Try to wrap the rice up well.

So you can't see it from outside.

It's sticky!

Wet your hands!

I did.

In water?

Yeah.

Drink to the spirits!

Put in more. The bottom's splitting. That's enough.

Now stand it up.

Tasty!

Just like Mom's!

Wow, tasty!

Really tasty!

Is the relationship with the river merely “tough”?

It demands that those living near the river join together.

They must share both the difficulties and the pleasures.

The experiences build unity.

But if the unity is broken, it is difficult to restore.

For a time people here gave up on their “tough relationship.”

How did they rejuvenate it?

Part 11: Residents and Government

Reviving the Canals

To go ahead with the project, I thought:

The waterways supported people's lives and work.

Until 20 or 30 years ago they provided serenity and prosperity.

So I thought I'd ask the people to recollect first,

to understand the essence of the project,

and then ask for their cooperation.

I considered this the most important thing.

So I held open meetings for people to discuss things.

More than 100 open meetings were held about canal restoration.

Hiromatsu emphasized the canals' importance.

He prompted people to recall past glories.

He kindled hope in each citizen's heart

about how wonderful the revitalized canals would be.

At first some cynics said that it was all just for tourists.

After a while some said, “That part was deeper.”

Or, “There were lots of carp there.”

Things like that. Discussions went very congenially.

In the end they all agreed to cooperate.

They even applauded the idea.

After the discussions, a civic leader

asked the people to stay on after the city hall folks left.

The leader took the initiative.

They agreed to voluntarily give up illegal usage.

Later, I went to have a look.

They'd removed everything.

It was all gone without a trace.

I was amazed.

As for the dredging of the waterways

city officials and citizens cooperated.

The dredging was carried out under direct city supervision.

A big problem was where to put the dredged sludge.

It was hard to find a place because of the filth and stench.

However...

When the water started to flow again,

one after another, people offered to help.

We started dredging not knowing where the sludge would go.

An agricultural committeeman saw water flowing.

He told us:

“The water's flowing for the first time since I was a kid.”

He said, “Now that you've done this much

I'm going to get involved more seriously myself.”

He led us to three sites to dump the sludge.

We went ahead and started using those three sites.

Then one neighborhood after another

asked us to dredge their canals.

They offered places to dump sludge for free.

At first we dredged smaller canals.

We couldn't use machines on those.

It was just a test of human strength.

Then we came up with the jet hose.

It helped speed up the work.

Take a look at this and you can see that Hiromatsu

and other officials rolled up their sleeves and worked.

They led the way in the clean-up.

And that's what inspired everyone else to pitch in.

Dredging progressed twice as fast as expected.

After embankment work came main canal dredging.

Then the promenades and riverside decks.

The total cost was just one-fifth that of the sewer plan.

As he worked, Hiromatsu issued updates to further educate the citizens.

Prefectural officials reacted angrily,

saying that the canals belong to the state,

and are not the shared property of residents.

Yanagawa's residents knew

that without the waterways they would be flooded.

Deep down in their hearts

they wanted to renew the river relationship.

Spending huge tax sums on concrete and machines might

“meet their needs” in a superficial way.

But it wouldn't make Yanagawa more attractive.

If the government really had faith in citizens

and explained its actions enthusiastically,

it would draw out and harness the people's latent energy.

And if people began cleaning up, like in the old days,

if they really got to know the river again,

they'd no longer be inclined to pollute it.

So Hiromatsu thought. And he acted on his beliefs.

Good morning!

You've been cleaning up the canals.

How are they doing now?

Fairly clean.

I agree.

Do areas outside the tourist route also matter?

Yes. When we cleaned places that aren't on it

some said, “Don't bother.”

But they're Yanagawa canals too. We must clean them all.

Do the citizens clean the waterways themselves?

Yes.

Small canals are mostly cleaned by the people around them.

They volunteer to work with the city.

What's the hardest to remove when cleaning?

The hardest to remove?

Leftover food, I guess.

It takes some skill. And it stinks.

There's even dead dogs and cats thrown in.

That's disgusting.

Today's trash is mostly nylon and cans, which won't decomposed.

We didn't used to have those.

Do you have anything to ask the citizens?

Cooperation. This work requires a spirit of cooperation.

Now people throw away leftovers in shopping bags.

We think that's a shame.

They shouldn't throw away food.

It's their river.

They should consider that before throwing away food.

We need everyone to pitch in.

I agree.

Nowadays you just turn on a tap to get drinking water anytime.

But in the future, tap water might become undrinkable too.

I think we need to get back to the idea of water

that we used to have.

The start of May brings the Suitengu Festival to Okinohata.

Children perform or and a-bay as hi, traditional festival music.

A floating stage travels up and down the canals.

The event is unique to Yanagawa's waterways.

Suitengu's head shrine is in Kurume.

The people of Chikugo have long prayed to it for protection.

This pretty gourd holds an amulet.

You duck under the portable shrine for luck.

A troupe performs a period play.

The floating stage is called Sanjinmaru.

It's assembled from six flat-bottomed boats by young men.

Having six boats is significant.

Supposedly this fishing town was started by six Heike fugitives.

Six neighborhoods of 50 or 60 families each rotate festival duties.

Each one's turn to run the festival comes every six years.

The neighborhood meets to divide up the work.

Young and old, men and women, all work to make it a success.

Girls practice the shamisen.

Housewives prepare fortunes.

Once, adults and youths performed the music.

A preservation group formed 15 years ago.

Since then children ages 11 to 14 have taken over.

New members practice hard as the festival nears.

Citizens handle all aspects of the festival:

Shrine matters, money, planning, vendors...

The festival belongs to the people.

Seating is allocated for the six neighborhoods.

The Suitengu Festival is

by, for and of the townspeople of Okinohata.

Oh, too bad! Second prize!

You got second prize!

Such festivals teach people solidarity and self-government.

During Japan's boom years, many festivals vanished.

The youths responsible for music in Okinohata left to find jobs.

A preservation group had to be formed.

Those were the days when Okinohata's canals were fouled.

But now people's civic pride and cooperative spirit are reborn.

Yanagawa's waterways are recovering with it.

The canals again perform many roles.

Bringing serenity and prosperity is one of them.

Executive Producer Hayao Miyazaki

Screenplay by Isao Takahata

Theme Music by Yoshio Mamiya

Special Cooperation by Tsutae Hiromatsu

Subtitles by Aura

A Nibariki Presentation

We thank the people of Yanagawa, who made this film possible.

Producer Susumu Kubo

Directed by Isao Takahata