The beauty of Lake Biwa Canal captured with VR

How to enjoy the contents at the local viewpoint

1. Keage Incline View Point

The blue section of the photo indicates the View Point

2. Display Content

Hold your smartphone or tablet in front of you and tap on the “Experience VR Content” button. The 360-degree VR Content will appear on screen.
Superimpose the scene displayed on the screen onto the actual scene in front of you.
If the angle is slightly off, you can drag the picture with your finger to adjust the angle.

If you tip your smartphone or tablet, the content will display the same direction.

You can move the angle with your finger.

3. Play Content, Return to Previous Screen

Tap the Play button in the center of the screen and the content’s video will play.
To return to the previous screen, tap the BACK button at the top left of the screen.

Changes in the scenery between Meiji/Taisho (1968-1926) and today

Keage Incline

When the Incline first started operating, the cradles were made of wood, but they were changed to iron frames in the Taisho Period (1912-1926)

Learn more about the Keage Incline!

The Keage Incline was an inclined railway system built to carry boats up and down the slope between the Keage Berth at the top of the hill and the Nanzenji Berth at the bottom, without having to unload the cargo from the boats, by loading the whole boat onto cradles. When it was first built, it was the longest such inclined railway system in the world.
Powered by electricity from the Keage Power Station, it conquered the approximately 582-meter distance and 36-meter height difference between the Keage and Nanzenji berths in 10-15 minutes. Commercial operations of the Incline began in 1891.
The approximately 22-meter slope on which the rails were laid was originally a sheer cliff, but it was filled in and the slope formed using earth brought out from the digging of the tunnels for the canal. Water transportation on the canals was a bustling industry, carrying a total of 220,000 tonnes of goods annually in 1925, but as other methods of transportation developed, it gradually fell into decline.
Operation of the Incline was discontinued in 1948, but the area was restored in 1977. Today, it is a much-loved place to stroll and take photographs.

Scene of the Incline today

Canal Tidbit: Dog Spikes and Turtle Spikes

Some the rails still present on the Keage Incline are not the originals, having been replaced during repair works over the years, but the original rails that do remain have been evaluated as having immense value as part of Japan’s industrial heritage.
Of particular interest are the spikes used to secure the rails to the sleepers. Two kinds of spikes remain on the railway - dog spikes, which have square, convex heads, and oval, flat spikes called turtle spikes.
Compared to the turtle spikes, which were designed for American railways and imported to Japan from the 1890s, dog spikes, which were imported from Great Britain when Japan’s railways were first founded in the 1870s, are apparently extremely rare. Most of the spikes used on the Keage Incline are turtle spikes, but some dog spikes actually still remain in some sections. One way to enjoy a stroll along the Incline could be to search for these rare dog spikes as you reflect on the rails’ history.
(Reference: Yomigaeru Meiji no Kindaika Isan Keage Inkurain [Reviving the modernization heritage of the Meiji period the Keage incline], Investigation Committees of Civil Engineering Heritage, Japan Railway Construction Public Corporation)

Dog Spike

Turtle Spike

Canal Tidbit: Inscription on Nejiri Manpo: “Raku Hyakunen no Yume”

Completed in June, 1888, Nejiri Manpo is a tunnel that was built at the same time as the construction of the road from Sanjo-dori Street to Nanzenji. Manpo is an old Japanese word meaning “tunnel.”
The word, Nejiri, which means “twisted,” is in reference to the way the bricks have been set in a spiral pattern. It is thought that they were laid this way to enable the tunnel to withstand the weight of the cradles bearing the boats that plied the Incline. On either end of the tunnel, which runs from east to west, there is an Awata-ware ceramic plaque inscribed with calligraphy by then Governor of Kyoto Prefecture, Kunimichi Kitagaki (1836-1916). What you should look out for is the small inscription “Raku Hyakunen no Yume” (Enjoy a Hundred-Year Dream) in the top right corner of the plaque at the eastern end. This inscription gives us a surreptitious glimpse into the courage and passion of our Meiji predecessors, who were enjoying the dream of a century.

Nejiri Manpo

Raku Hyakunen no Yume (Enjoy a Hundred-Year Dream)

Keage Power Station

The Phase 1 Power Station began operating in 1891, using water from the No. 1 Canal that began flowing in 1890, making it Japan’s first industrial hydro-electric power station. With the completion of the No. 2 Canal, the Phase 2 Power Station, the brick building that still stands today, began operating in 1912.
Even today, there is a penstock that sends water from the canal to the power plant, providing water for power generation by the Phase 3 Power Station, which was built on the site of the Phase 1 Station.

Taisho Period (1912-1926)
(Phase 2 Keage Power Plant)

Canal Tidbit: Governor Kitagaki’s Bold Decision

The original plan for after the construction of the canal was to make use of the canal’s water by installing water turbines.
However, engineer, Sakuro Tanabe had acquired the latest knowledge not only about civil engineering but also about electricity. He learned about hydroelectric power generation in the United States, and proposed a change of plans to incorporate the construction of a hydroelectric power plant. Because construction of the canal was already underway, this proposal caused Governor Kitagaki much consternation, but in the face of Tanabe’s passion and considering the future of Kyoto in the next 100 years, he made the bold decision to change tack toward hydroelectric power.
The electricity generated by this hydroelectric power station would later become a driving force in the development of modern Kyoto, including being used to power Japan’s first electric railway.

Canal Tidbit: The Secret of the Star Mark

On the southern wall of the Phase 2 Power Plant building, there is a six-pointed star.
This is the emblem of the Kyoto Municipal Waterworks Project, which included the electricity project, and is actually a stylized form of the Chinese character for water.
This star mark can also be seen on a manhole just south of the power plant across Sanjo-dori Street.
This mark, as well as a five-pointed star, can also still be found on the piers of a bridge over the Kamogawa Canal that flows through Fushimi. This five-pointed star was used by the Imperial Army. This bridge was the division bridge of the Army’s 16th Division, which was stationed in nearby Fukakusa until the end of the Second World War.

Phase 2 Keage Power Station

Star mark on the manhole cover

Keage Water Treatment Plant

Keage Water Treatment Plant, Japan’s first rapid filtration treatment plant, began supplying water to the city in April 1912. Part of the treatment plant from the Taisho Period (1912-1926) can still be seen today. The plant is usually not accessible, but around early May every year, when the azaleas in the plant’s grounds are in full bloom, it is opened to the public, allowing visitors to explore the gardens.

Sedimentation basin and filtration ponds, 1912

Waterworks Bureau’s office building, completed in June 1910

Kyoto Electric Railway

In 1895, using electricity generated by the Keage Power Plant, Kyoto Electric Railway began operating streetcars on the Fushimi Line, Kiyamachi Line, and Keage Line between Kiyamachi 2-jo and Nanzenji. The lines were subsequently extended, with the section between Nanzenji and Keage opening in 1907.
The tramways were acquired by the City of Kyoto in 1918, but with the popularization of motor vehicles and other forms of transport, the lines were progressively discontinued.
By 1978, all of the tramways had been discontinued, and they have since been converted into roads.

Miyako Hotel

In April 1890, the oil baron, Jinbei Nishimura, established the recreational gardens, Yoshimizu-en, at the foot of Mt. Kacho. In 1900, he founded the Miyako Hotel inside the gardens. Ever since, the much-loved hotel has welcomed many foreign dignitaries to Kyoto, Japan’s largest tourism destination.
Today, it operates as the Westin Miyako Hotel Kyoto.