Kawakami First Dam

A Dam Built Through the War Years

The Kawakami First Dam (川上第一堰堤, Kawakami Daiichi Entei) is a gravity concrete sabo dam completed in 1946 on the main Arakawa River just below its confluence with the Nishi-Karasu River in Tsuchiyu Onsen-cho, Fukushima City, Fukushima Prefecture, and it was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on March 7, 2008.

The national record gives a crest length of 70 meters and a height of 9.0 meters, with the right-bank revetment registered along with it. It stands about 570 meters upstream of the Arakawa Second Dam and is registration number 07-0089.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs notes that the Kawakami First Dam is the only Arakawa dam whose construction ran continuously through the war and into the postwar years. It was finished across a period when materials and labor were both scarce.

Why the Kawakami First Dam Was Registered

The Kawakami First Dam was registered under the criterion for structures that contribute to the historic landscape of the country. It is a stone-faced gravity dam whose upstream face is battered at 0.5 to 1 and its downstream face at 0.2 to 1.

Most Arakawa dams use 0.45 to 1 on the upstream face, so this one is slightly gentler, a difference you can read from the Agency's descriptions. The records do not say if wartime conditions shaped the design, but it shows that the details of the Arakawa dams are far from uniform.

What to Look For

Watch the corners of the spillway wings. According to the Agency, they are rounded rather than square, easing the wear where water strikes the edges, and from the front the ends of the spillway trace a soft outline.

Note the setting, too: just below the meeting of two streams, where sediment is caught before it moves downstream, with the right-bank revetment protecting the shore.

Visiting the Kawakami First Dam

The Kawakami First Dam is a working erosion-control structure. There is no fee; you view it from nearby, and climbing on the dam or going down to the riverbed is not allowed. After rain the river can rise suddenly, so keep away from the banks. Directions are on the Arakawa River Sabo Dams page.

The Arakawa Seventh Dam is about 200 meters upstream and can be seen on the same walk. Paths narrow as you go upstream, so wear sturdy shoes.