💦TRAVERSING THE RAPIDS🚣♂️
The famous poet Susukida Kyūkin (薄田泣菫 d.1945), upon completing his first major collection 'The Departing Spring' (ゆく春), bound the originals in a koto string, weighed them with stones, and tossed them to the water god in the depths of the Hozu River.
The Hozugawa Kudari (保津川下り lit. 'Down the Hozu River') takes 300,000 visitors a year through the Hozu Gorge (保津峡).
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Departing from the calm waters below the Shinhozu Bridge in Kameoka, boats traverse the mountain rapids, finishing at Togetsukyō (渡月橋) in Arashiyama.
This 16km route is the same one once used by boatmen transporting lumber from Tanba Province (丹波国) to Kyotō. They would bind the logs together to form rafts and sail these downriver.
The wood was pivotal in the creation of the capitals Nagaoka-kyō (長岡京) and Heian-kyō.
It's thought the expression 'kawakudari' (川下り) was first used when boats transported logs to help in the construction of the short-lived capital Nagaoka-kyō (長岡京 784-94).
With (a lot of) poetic license we might better translate 'kawakudari' as 'shooting the rapids'.
Kameoka (亀岡市) prospered as a port after the creation of the Sanin-dō Highway (山陰道) some time between the 7th-8thC.
Wood from the Yuge (弓削) and Yamaguni (山国) areas was sent by river through the mountains and out into the Kyōto basin via the Hozu-gawa (保津川).
It takes three men to navigate each flat-bottomed boat.
Each team takes a turn at the rudder, oar and a pole (used to guide the boat away from rocks and push it clear of the more dangerous parts of the river).
The current form of the river emerged thanks to the merchant and river engineer Suminokura Ryōi (角倉了以 1554-1614).
Hailing from a fabulously wealthy family, Ryōi was employed throughout his life to 'open up' a handful of rivers in return for special trading rights.
Ryōi made it possible to use boats along the length of the river, allowing for rice, wheat, firewood and charcoal from Tamba Province to be quickly and cheaply transported.
Before this time lumber, sailed downstream as rafts, was one of the few things that could make the journey.
In 1606 Ryōi started work on his most ambitious river management project...clearing the Hozu-gawa.
It had been his long-held aspiration to blast away the rocks and calm the rapids of the river, in order to speed up, make safe and monetize the route from Tanba Province.
Calming the Hozu-gawa cost a huge amount of money and man-hours, and many men lost their lives.
In 1614 the temple of Daihikaku Senkō-ji (大悲閣千光寺) was moved by Ryōi to a spot above the river at Arashiyama, in order to pray for the souls of the dead.
Daihikaku possesses a rather startling image of Suminokura Ryōi (角倉了以 1554-1614). He sits on a large coil of rope and holds an ishiwari axe (石割斧), both essential items in river excavation.
For a time it is said he lived at the temple, praying for souls of the dead workers.
Following Ryōi's opening of the Hozu-gawa, trade along the waterway exploded.
It was not until 1895 that reliance on the river diminished with the opening of the JR Sanin Train Line. By 1945 construction of new roads finally ended the rafting of logs downstream.
With their livelihoods lost, boatsmen struck upon the idea of offering rides to visitors.
Since the late 19thC tours down the river had become fashionable amongst the wealthier classes. In 1895 the current Hozugawa Kudari took shape.
Natsume Sōseki's (夏目漱石) 'Gubijinsō' (虞美人草 'The Poppy'), published in 1907, helped to popularise the Hozugawa Kudari (保津川下り).
In Natsume's story a young couple buys their tickets for Tanba, getting off at Kameoka, where the boatsmen would wait for their guests.
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