Lake Biwa Waterways Project

Date: 1890
Lead Engineer: Tanabe Sakurô

The Lake Biwa Waterways Project was a major public works project which represents one of the most famous, or oft-cited as significant, projects in the Meiji period modernization of Kyoto. Executed in 1890 under the guidance of young engineer Tanabe Sakurô, the project involved the construction of canals and aqueducts which brought water to Kyoto from Lake Biwa, some eleven kilometers away; including within it Japan's first hydroelectric dam and numerous other facilities, the Waterways Project contributed to the modernization of Kyoto's public transportation systems, firefighting, sanitation, irrigation, and potable water supplies.

It was one of the chief achievements celebrated at the Fourth Domestic Exhibition, held in Kyoto in 1895.

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References

Takashi Fujitani, Splendid Monarchy, UC Press (1998), 87.