Tatsumi Canal
Tatsumi Canal is an 11 kilometer long canal built in the Edo period in the city of Kanazawa, Ishikawa Japan. A 8.7 kilometer portion of this canal was designated a National Historic Site of Japan in 2010.Overview
The Tatsumi Canal was completed in 1632 by the 3rd daimyō of Kanazawa Domain, Maeda Toshinori. After a Kanazawa Great Fire of 1631 destroyed the jōkamachi and most of Kanazawa Castle, he ordered the construction of a canal for the purpose of fire protection and to provide water for the Kenrokuen gardens and moats of Kanazawa Castle. Despite the long distance and technical difficulties in building the canal, which included a four kilometer tunnel and the use of an inverse siphon to bring water against an uphill gradient, it was completed in less than a year. The canal inlet was extended another 600 meters in 1855.
