The Remains of the Shinagawa Canal

The Shinagawa Canal was a branch of the Tamagawa Aquaduct. It began in what is now Musashino City and ran through Mitaka and other cities before it reached Shinagawa. Of the 33 branch canals of the Tamagawa Aquaduct, it was the longest. Now, since nearly all these waterways have been channeled into culverts or filled in, this is the only place where the remains of a branch canal can be observed. Nearby, to the north and under a road, is the site of the Sengawa Canal weir that created a branch channel of the Sengawa Canal. To the west is a pedestrian path which covers what was once the channel of the canal.

In the Edo period (1600-1868) this spot was within the village of Nogawa, which was established in the Kan’ei period (1624-1644) by the Shibata family who governed Kami Sengawa located to the south. Nogawa village was initially known as Sengawa Shinden.         

The Shinagawa Canal originated in 1663, when Hosokawa Toshishige of Kumamoto domain diverted water from the existing Sengawa Canal at Nogawa village with the goal of bringing water to the garden spring and pond of the Hosokawa family’s secondary residence in Togoshi. The waterway was originally known as the Togoshi Canal. Three years later, the Togoshi Canal was abandoned, but in 1667 villages around the Shinagawa Post Station requested permission to use the water for agricultural purposes. As a result, the course of the canal was changed, and the waterway became known as the Shinagawa Canal.  

While there is no record of when the original Sengawa Canal went into operation, it is likely that the Tokugawa shogunate granted a request submitted by the Shibata family in Kami Sengawa village soon after the Tamagawa Aquaduct was completed in 1653.       

The Sengawa Canal branched off from the Tamagawa Aquaduct at the village of Sakai and passed through other villages such as Kami Renjaku, Shimo Renjaku, Mure, and Sengawa Shinden (later Nogawa village), where a weir was constructed to divert water west to Kami Sengawa village and east to Nogawa village. Therefore, it is possible that the original Togoshi Canal was dug as an extension of the waterway that came to the eastern edge of Nogawa village. In other words, although the waterway is now called the Shinagawa Canal, it was originally a part of the Sengawa Canal system. In 1932, when the Shinagawa Canal irrigation association was disbanded, management of the canal was transferred to the town of Mitaka. In 1941 records show that the waterway had been blocked by sandbags at the weir and that the canal was no longer in use.