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Tourist spot

Sanson-Yousui (Three villages irrigation canal)

Shindayu Yamamoto was born about 200 years ago in Shibou and he was active in the provincial government office as a deputy along with the mayor Shube Hirao. In the 3rd year of Bunka-Era, the whole of north area of Yoshino river was hit with serious drought. Many farmers went hungry and suffered badly due to the heavy tax imposed. So bad was the situation, they fled to the neighbouring county, Sanuki. After the consultation with the mayor, Mr.Yamamoto made a plea in a letter to the governor of Awa-han so that they could carry out the work to make irrigation canal. He signed the letter with his own blood and put his life on line to commit a hara-kiri, were it not successful. This difficult work was completed after two years, but then, they encountered the another problem as the canal was kept being buried by the landslide every year. One day, he was inspired by the story of a coal miner and got an idea of digging the tunnel for the irrigation canal. Yet again he managed to get an approval for the suggested work in exchange for his property and wealth to tunnel the mountain and at last it was completed in the late autumn of 10th year of Bunsei-Era after overcoming many difficulties and sacrifices. The length of canal is 268.5 meters. This made the poor villages (Kamonomiya, Seiriki and Shibou whose staple diet was potatoes) enriched and they then became the granary of the area.

Basic information

Shibou, Mino-Cho, Miyoshi City
Parking lot
Get off at Ikawa-Ikeda IC→Take the National route 32 bound for Takamatsu→Take the Prefectural road 12→Sanson-Yousui （The journey takes approx. 25 minutes by car.) It takes 5 minutes by car from the nearest JR Eguchi Station.