Former Shogisan Distribution Reservoir

Matsue's First Distribution Reservoir

The Former Shogisan Distribution Reservoir (旧床几山配水池, Kyū Shōgisan Haisuichi) is a disused waterworks reservoir built in 1917 on the summit of Mount Shogisan in Agenogi, Matsue City, Shimane Prefecture; its reservoir, metering room and gate were registered together as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties (structures) on April 18, 2008 (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The three carry consecutive registration numbers 32-0072 to 32-0074, and all are owned by Matsue City.

According to the Matsue City Waterworks Bureau, the city's water supply grew out of a survey of 1895 by the Scottish engineer William K. Burton, which looked to Imbe, south of the city, for its source. Construction began in November 1914, and water first flowed to homes on June 1, 1918. The Agency describes the Shogisan reservoir as one of the facilities of that original system.

Gravity from Imbe to Shogisan

In 1911 the city asked Nakajima Eiji, a professor at Tokyo Imperial University and a former student of Burton, to work out the details. He backed Burton's plan: draw water at Imbe, hold it in a reservoir on Shogisan, and let gravity carry it into town (Matsue City Waterworks Bureau). The hill lies about 3.5 kilometres north of the Imbe treatment plant (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The original records put the full water level of the Imbe filter beds at 40.26 metres above sea level and that of the Shogisan reservoir at 31.21 metres, and that drop was what pushed the water out to the streets below (Matsue City Waterworks Bureau).

The hill's name has its own story. Matsue City notes the tradition that the warlord Horio Yoshiharu and his son Tadauji surveyed the land from here and chose Kameda Hill as the site of Matsue Castle.

The Three Registered Structures

At the centre of the hilltop compound is the concrete reservoir itself, 37 metres east to west and 32 metres north to south, split into east and west chambers by a central inspection passage (Agency for Cultural Affairs). On the east side of the compound stands the small metering room that measured water bound for the city, and at the eastern edge is the main gate with its cut-stone posts.

The bureau's records trace the build: work started in November 1914, the basins were begun in April 1915, the main work was complete by July 1916, and drainage pipes laid in December 1917 made the reservoir ready to take water.

A Matsue City report notes that the pump house and staff quarters were rebuilt early in the Showa era and are not part of the registration. The same report describes two old lamp posts by the entrance whose relief lettering includes a date of March 1891; where they came from is still unclear. Each registered structure has its own page.

Restoration and a Hilltop Park

The reservoir no longer serves the water supply. To mark the centenary of the city's water service, the bureau restored the Former Shogisan Distribution Reservoir in 2018, reopened the grounds as a park and held a commemorative ceremony there on October 29 of that year.

The summit looks out over central Matsue. Papers from the city's townscape committee list the Shogisan lookout among candidate viewpoints for Matsue Castle.

Visiting

The Former Shogisan Distribution Reservoir is open as a park. Opening hours published in a Matsue City magazine are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. from March to May and from September to November, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. from June to August, and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. from December to February. No official information on fees was found.

The magazine gives the address as 1-12-11 Agenogi. The hill is roughly 1.2 kilometres south-southwest of JR Matsue Station in a straight line.