This beautiful canal, in Japan called “Takasegawa,” runs alongside Kiyamachi dori, a famous and historically important commercial street in Kyoto. This picture was taken in early fall, 2010.
The man-made Takasegawa was dug in the early Edo period as a strategic water route for shipping various goods from the countryside to the center of Kyoto. Takasegawa begins from its high point in Nijo-kiyamachi and flows into the Uji River at the port of Fushimi Kiyamachi means, literally, “town of wood store.”