A study of the technique for applying wooden pipes to water supply from the view-point of the Tatsumi Waterworks

Abstract

The Tatsumi Waterworks, completed in 1632 (Kan-ei 9), was constructed by making use of the high technology of civil engineering in the early Edo period. In spite of repairs and improvements it had undergone since, it retains many traces of the technology at the time of its first construction.
How the water supply to the Castle of Kanazawa was findlly executed is shown by comparing documentary records with the recent excavations. The inverted syphon system by means of wooden-pipes, which technique had been employed in the construction of the Kanda Waterworks, was used at the end of the Tatsumi Waterworks in order to convey water into the Castle.