Saitama Minuma Irrigation Canal, KamiOsaki Village Area, Water Suspension Lock Scenery

Minuma Irrigation Canal is the agriculture irrigation water which Yasobe Tamenaga IZAWA built for newly reclaiming a rice field in 1728, who was the officials of the Tokugawa shogunate. At the beginning of the Edo period, Tokugawa shogunate government moved Arakawa-river and Tonegawa-river and developed new farmland around the Edo area. Minuma’s reservoir was built on this occasion in current Saitama City to supply water to old farmland. When Yoshimune of 8thTOKUGAWA Shogun had ruled Japan, as part of the economic reforms Yasobe Tamenaga IZAWA was ordered to develop Minuma’s reservoir into agricultural land.　Therefore, as a substituted irrigation canal, ""Saitama Minuma Irrigation Canal"" was built.　This picture expresses the dam called ""Seki-Waku"" established in current Kuki City. It is the structure that a bridge was built over the upper part of the dam. We can understand a high engineering works technology of the Edo period. Copying by O Kinko.