Memories of Water: Traces of Lost Watery Spaces around Kanda River

The Kanda River is one of the many waterways in Tokyo, but it is unique in several aspects. In contrast to the many other rivers in Tokyo, all of the Kanda River lies within the area of the capital. In addition, while highways were built over most of Tokyo’s watercourses, it is one of the rare rivers that is still entirely visible. It passes through a variety of neighbourhoods and terrains, stretching through some of the most historically rich parts of the city, and linking areas of the “high city”, once inhabited by the former military upper class, to those of the “low city” where commoners lived and worked during the Edo period (1603-1867). The area that this chapter focuses on, which is the midstream of the Kanda River, is unique from several perspectives as well. It can be thought of as the core of a microcosm where different characteristics concerning the morphology of territory, the environment, the use of land and the social settlements coexist. Written, material and iconographic sources of the Edo, Meiji (1868-1912), Taishō (1912-26) and early Shōwa (1926-89) eras give us a vivid image of human life and the environment in this peripheral space as well as of the presence of water – water that irrigated the rice fields in the plain, beautified the residences of the upper class on the hill, and took the form of water courses, ponds, and other watery places. Some of them have partially survived, while others have been lost, together with several human activities linked to water.