Standing on What the Dam Below Caught
Jinnosuke Valley No. 12 Sabo Dam is an erosion-control dam of 1932 in the middle reaches of the Jinnosuke Valley at Hakumine, Hakusan City, Ishikawa Prefecture, listed on 23 February 2012 as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property. It is 33.0 metres across and 5.5 metres high, and it was built directly above the No. 11 dam, on the gravel that dam had trapped.
Its foundation, in other words, is not the natural bed of the stream. It is a few years' worth of debris held back by the structure below. The stepped dams of this valley were all built that way, each one waiting for its predecessor to fill before it could be raised. Jinnosuke Valley No. 12 Sabo Dam is the second tread of that staircase.
Why It Was Listed
Ishikawa Prefecture began sabo work here in the last years of the Meiji era, and the scheme became a directly managed national project in 1927. This dam followed five years later, before the flood of 1934 that killed 97 people along the Tedori River. The national record notes that it has suffered relatively little damage and keeps its original form. That is the substance of the case for listing Jinnosuke Valley No. 12 Sabo Dam: the planning and technique of those first national years survive here in legible condition.
Registration is a light form of protection, working through notification rather than permits, and quite separate from designation. This dam qualified as a structure contributing to the historic landscape of the country. In 2004 the Japan Society of Civil Engineers certified the Jinnosuke Valley dams as a Civil Engineering Heritage site.
The Spillway and Its Eave
The dam body is mortared rubble, stone quarried on the spot and bedded with mortar. The spillway at its centre is cut as an inverted trapezoid, opening upward, and the coping stones around its lip project slightly forward to form a small eave. That detail belongs to the first years of the national works on Hakusan and vanishes from later dams.
At 5.5 metres this is one of the taller dams in the valley, and the proportion against its 33.0-metre span makes the shape easy to read from a distance. Because so little of it has broken away, the angle of the spillway and the projection of the coping remain as the engineers set them.
Visiting
Jinnosuke Valley No. 12 Sabo Dam is a working structure and cannot be walked on. No platform or panel has been built beside it. Seeing it means climbing the Sabo Shindo trail from Bettodeai and looking down where the slope opens towards the valley. Since it sits immediately above the No. 11 dam, the two usually come into view together, one behind the other.
Nothing prohibits photography. This slope is one of the largest active landslides in Japan and repair work is close to continuous, so working sites should be avoided and the streambed is not somewhere to descend to. Directions, seasonal car restrictions, the compulsory climbing plan and the museum in Hakumine are covered on the Jinnosuke Valley Sabo Works page.
- 📍 Plan Your Visit to Ishikawa
- Find tours, activities & transport passes near Jinnosuke Valley No. 12 Sabo Dam
- [ Kenrokuen Garden & Kanazawa Craft Experiences ]
Q&A
- When was Jinnosuke Valley No. 12 Sabo Dam built?
- In 1932, the same year as the No. 11 dam immediately below it.
- Why was Jinnosuke Valley No. 12 Sabo Dam built on trapped gravel?
- Bedrock does not surface in this streambed, so there was no footing for a tall dam. Engineers instead used the deposit held by the dam below as a foundation, repeating the process up the valley.
- How big is Jinnosuke Valley No. 12 Sabo Dam?
- It is 33.0 metres long and 5.5 metres high, among the taller dams of the group.
- Can I visit Jinnosuke Valley No. 12 Sabo Dam?
- There are no opening hours or fees and you cannot step onto it. The only public approach is the Sabo Shindo trail from Bettodeai, which passes above the valley.
- What should I look for at Jinnosuke Valley No. 12 Sabo Dam?
- How little has been lost. The trapezoidal spillway and the forward-projecting coping stones survive close to their original condition.
Basic Information
| Name | Jinnosuke Valley No. 12 Sabo Dam |
|---|---|
| Location | Hakumine, Hakusan City, Ishikawa Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) |
| Year Designated | Registered 2012/02/23 (Heisei 24) |
| Quantity | 1 structure |
| Dimensions | 33.0 metres long, 5.5 metres high |
| Owner | Ishikawa Prefecture |
| Public Access | Working structure in the open; distant views from the trail only |
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Cultural Properties Database
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00009148
- Kanazawa River and National Highway Office: Fifteen Facilities Listed as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties
- https://www.hrr.mlit.go.jp/kanazawa/hakusansabo/03history/touroku.html
- Kanazawa River and National Highway Office: History of the Hakusan Sabo Project
- https://www.hrr.mlit.go.jp/kanazawa/hakusansabo/03history/history01.html
- Kanazawa River and National Highway Office: Civil Engineering Heritage Certification
- https://www.hrr.mlit.go.jp/kanazawa/hakusansabo/03history/isan01.html
- Ishikawa Prefecture: Traffic Restrictions during the Hakusan Climbing Season
- https://www.pref.ishikawa.lg.jp/hakusan/tozaninf/peak2.html
- Ishikawa Prefecture: Mandatory Submission of Climbing Plans for Hakusan
- https://www.pref.ishikawa.lg.jp/bousai/bousai_g/hakusan_kazan/jorei.html
Last verified: 2026.09.17
