Tales of Foreign Settlements in Japan by Harold S. Williams

Author:Harold S. Williams
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4629-0737-3
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing

HISTORY

IN

THE

RIVER

BEDS

All Rivers doe in a kinde of thankful r'enumeration return their waters to the Sea.

Description of Japan by Rev. ARTHUR HATCH, 1623

The observant traveller, when passing between Kobe and Osaka, whether by one of the public transportation systems or by motor car, will have noticed that the beds of most of the rivers from Kobe to Koshien are considerably higher than the level of the surrounding countryside. The railway line, although more or less on a level plane, actually passes underneath several rivers. In other places the railway line and also the highway are constructed on long built-up rarnps so that they may pass over the raised river beds.

The unusual geographical formations of these river beds have of course been brought about by the circumstance that these rivers, having their sources in the nearby mountains, are short in length and only flow intermittently, and then for short periods after rains. Every rainfall brings down sand and gravel from the mountains, but so quickly does the flow subside that much of this debris is deposited in the river beds, which over the centuries have thus been built up to a level far above that of the surrounding countryside. As nature raised the level of the river bed, so man had to raise the height of the banks to prevent overflowing.

These rivers, generally dry, have been the scenes of disasters and terror over the centuries, even unto recent times, when torrential rains frequently have broken the banks and devastated the villages and the rice-fields on either side. From ancient times the farmers, time and again, had to set to work clearing the sand and gravel from their ruined rice fields. Building development in this area in the last two decades has obliterated most of the rice fields; but until then this region was studded all about with immense mounds, resembling ancient burial mounds, but which in fact represented flood debris cleared from the fields over the centuries at the cost of years of heartbreaking hand labour.

The Ikuta River which was on the eastern boundary of the early Foreign Settlement in Kobe, was another example of a river with a raised bed, and it also had burst its banks on many occasions in the past. A site on the eastern bank of the river near its mouth had been hastily set apart in 1868 as a burial ground for foreigners. This place known as Ono Cemetery was for various reasons looked upon by the early residents with certain misgivings. There was the constant fear that the river might again burst its banks and wash the burial ground with all its contents out to sea. Fortunately that never happened, and in 1873 when the Ikuta river was diverted to what is now known as Shin-ikuta-gawa, the danger of any such disaster was then removed. The old graves remained there until about 1952 when they were removed to the new site behind Futatabi.

Further west was the old Minatogawa, or the port river of the ancient town of Hyogo, which down through history has seen more violent happenings than any of the others.

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