Odai Irrigation Canal Kozumi River Aqueduct

What the Kozumi River Aqueduct Is

The Odai Irrigation Canal Kozumi River Aqueduct (小田井灌漑用水路木積川渡井, Odai Kangai Yōsuiro Kozumigawa Toi) is a single-arch brick aqueduct built in 1914 to carry the Odai Irrigation Canal over the Kozumi River on the boundary between Nishimitani in Kinokawa City and Higashisakamoto in Iwade City, Wakayama Prefecture, and it was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan on March 2, 2006. The Agency for Cultural Affairs gives it a length of 6.0 meters and a width of 3.8 meters; it belongs to the Odai Land Improvement District.

Its registration number is 30-0085, and it was registered for contributing to the country's historic scenery. It is the farthest downstream of the canal's four registered structures and the smallest. The Agency places it on the edge of Uchita Town, which is now part of Kinokawa City.

Date and Reading of the Kozumi River Aqueduct

The Agency's database dates the Odai Irrigation Canal Kozumi River Aqueduct to 1914. MAFF, Japan's agriculture ministry, says instead that the wooden aqueduct, often damaged in heavy rain, was rebuilt in brick in 1913. This article follows the Agency's date.

The kana spelling of the name also varies. The Agency writes こずみがわ, Wakayama Prefecture's 2014 river plan for the Kisen area writes こづみがわ, and MAFF's pages use both; in standard romanization the two come out the same, Kozumi. The same plan shows that the Kozumi does not flow straight into the Kinokawa but joins the Kasuga River, one of its tributaries, as a short right-bank stream about 1.8 kilometers long.

English Bond and Fine Detailing on the Kozumi River Aqueduct

According to the Agency, the arch of the Odai Irrigation Canal Kozumi River Aqueduct is four bricks thick and the spandrel walls are laid in English bond, with a course showing only long faces alternating with a course showing only short ends. The other three registered structures use Flemish bond, so the striped look of this wall sets it apart.

A plaque carved with the bridge's name is set into the middle of the spandrel. Along the top of each side runs a horizontal band trimmed with dentils, a row of small square blocks, and with a sawtooth band of triangles. The Agency singles this out as careful workmanship.

MAFF gives the channel on top as only 1.8 meters wide. It classes the aqueduct as a filled-spandrel arch bridge, solid from the arch up to the channel, and says it keeps nearly its original form.

Seeing the Kozumi River Aqueduct

The Odai Irrigation Canal Kozumi River Aqueduct is a working part of the canal with no visitor facilities or charge. View it from the roadside, and stay out of the channel and the streambed.

Look for the plaque at the center of each side, the dentils and sawtooth band along the top, and the alternating stripes of the English bond. At 6 meters long the bridge is small, so the details are easy to miss unless you get reasonably close.

MAFF gives a 15-minute walk from Shimoisaka Station on the JR Wakayama Line, but the aqueduct is about 1.8 kilometers from the station in a straight line, so allow extra time. Getting around all four structures is covered on the Odai Irrigation Canal page.