Japan Heritage story
The Asaka Canal: one waterway that built Koriyama
未来を拓いた「一本の水路」
In the 1870s Koriyama's plain was dry and poor. A canal cut through the mountains brought water from Lake Inawashiro, and former samurai from across Japan came to farm it. The canal still feeds the region's rice, carp and industry.
Key facts
- Theme
- Sea and waterside, Forests and timber, Food and sake
- Era
- Meiji
- Region
- Tohoku
- Official name in Japanese
- 未来を拓いた「一本の水路」
- Official subtitle in Japanese
- 大久保利通“最期の夢”と開拓者の軌跡 郡山・猪苗代
- Official area (in Japanese)
- 福島県（郡山市，猪苗代町 ）
The story
Lake Inawashiro sits high at 514 m, but its water flowed only west, while the Asaka plain to the east was parched. After touring Europe and America with the Iwakura Mission, the statesman Okubo Toshimichi chose Asaka for a national model project: give jobs to samurai who had lost their stipends, and grow new industry. He proposed it in March 1878 and was assassinated just before work began.
His plan went ahead as Japan's first state-run irrigation project. From late 1878, about 2,000 former samurai and their families from nine domains settled the plain. The canal through the Ou Mountains brought water for rice and carp farming, and later for hydropower that ran spinning mills.
What to see
- Kaiseikan (Koriyama): the Western-style settlement office, built by local carpenters copying pictures of Western buildings.Google Maps 開成館 郡山 (opens in a new tab)
- Kaiseiyama Daijingu: the shrine the settlers prayed at, given a branch spirit of Ise Jingu.Google Maps 開成山大神宮 (opens in a new tab)
- Jurokkyo sluice gate (Inawashiro): the first structure built, controlling the lake's outflow.Google Maps 十六橋水門 (opens in a new tab)
- The settlers' cherry trees: planted with hopes for the future and still in bloom each spring.
See the Fukushima prefecture guide for the rest of your trip and more history and heritage.
Good to know
- Try carp dishes in Koriyama; carp farming grew thanks to the canal water.
- Spring is the best time, when the settlers' cherry trees bloom.
- Combine Koriyama with Lake Inawashiro and the Aizu 33 Kannon on the other side of the mountains.
Questions travellers ask
Who was Okubo Toshimichi?
A leading statesman of the Meiji Restoration who pushed for new industry. He planned the Asaka project but was assassinated in 1878 before work began.
Where does the Asaka Canal's water come from?
From Lake Inawashiro, through a channel cut through the Ou Mountains to the plain around Koriyama.
Where it comes from
More heritage stories from the same area
Local foods from the same area
Crafts from the same area
Sources
We checked the facts on this page against these sources.