The Top Tread of the Staircase
Jinnosuke Valley No. 23 Sabo Dam is an erosion-control dam of 1938 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 32.5 metres across and 5.0 metres high, built on the gravel trapped by the No. 22 dam below, and it is the highest of the eleven stepped dams.
The lowest dam in the sequence dates from 1932, so six years separate the bottom of the staircase from the top. Eleven times the engineers built low, waited for the gravel to arrive, and built again. Jinnosuke Valley No. 23 Sabo Dam marks how far up the valley that patience carried them.
Why It Was Listed
The year 1938 falls four years after the flood of 1934 that killed 97 people along the Tedori River, and eleven years after sabo work on Hakusan became a directly managed national project in 1927. This dam belongs to the stage at which the staircase in the middle reaches was approaching completion. Whatever the eleven dams are as a group, this is the one that closes the sequence.
Registration is a notification-based form of protection, separate from designation. Jinnosuke Valley No. 23 Sabo Dam qualified as a structure contributing to the historic landscape of the country. In 2004 the Japan Society of Civil Engineers certified the stepped dams of this valley as a Civil Engineering Heritage site.
The Eave That Survives
The body is mortared rubble, local stone bedded with mortar. The spillway is cut as an inverted trapezoid opening upward, and coping stones along its lip project forward to form the small eave that belongs to the earliest years of the national works here. On the No. 20 and No. 21 dams downstream that coping has been lost, so the number of places to see the detail intact is limited.
The shoulders were rebuilt in concrete, but the centre of the wall, 32.5 metres long and 5.0 metres high, remains as laid. That an eave of this kind was still being built in 1938 says something about how long the original design held.
Visiting
Jinnosuke Valley No. 23 Sabo Dam is a working structure and cannot be walked on. No platform or panel stands beside it. Seeing it means climbing the Sabo Shindo trail from Bettodeai and looking down where the slope opens. Since it caps the sequence, it is easier to locate by working down from above than by counting up from below.
Nothing prohibits photography. Rebuilding and repair continue in this valley, so working sites should be given a wide berth. Directions, the seasonal car restrictions, the compulsory climbing plan and the museum in Hakumine are set out on the Jinnosuke Valley Sabo Works page.
- 📍 Plan Your Visit to Ishikawa
- Find tours, activities & transport passes near Jinnosuke Valley No. 23 Sabo Dam
- [ Kenrokuen Garden & Kanazawa Craft Experiences ]
Q&A
- When was Jinnosuke Valley No. 23 Sabo Dam built?
- In 1938, the last of the eleven stepped dams to be raised.
- How big is Jinnosuke Valley No. 23 Sabo Dam?
- It is 32.5 metres long and 5.0 metres high.
- Does Jinnosuke Valley No. 23 Sabo Dam still have its coping?
- Yes. The forward-projecting coping that forms a small eave over the spillway survives here, while the No. 20 and No. 21 dams downstream have lost theirs.
- Can I visit Jinnosuke Valley No. 23 Sabo Dam?
- There are no opening hours or fees and the dam cannot be walked on. The public approach is the Sabo Shindo trail from Bettodeai.
- What is the heritage status of Jinnosuke Valley No. 23 Sabo Dam?
- A Registered Tangible Cultural Property, listed on 23 February 2012 under the registration system rather than designation.
Basic Information
| Name | Jinnosuke Valley No. 23 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 | 32.5 metres long, 5.0 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/101/00009157
- 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
