Ryoi Suminokura(1554`1614)
He traded with foreign countries and constructed the Takase River.

The Takase River is famous for the novel of Ogai Mori with the same name. It gives taste to Kiyamachi in Kyoto. It is a canal constructed by Ryoi Suminokura and his son Soan.

Ryoji Suminokura inherited entrepreneurship from his grand father and scientific mind from his father who was a doctor. He traded with other countries by a trading ship authorized by the Shognate. And he did river improvement work for transportation by ship. He mainly traded with Vietnam. By doing this, he made a huge fortune. These river improvement projects included the work for the Fuji River, the Tenryu River, and the Ooi River.




The Takase River
The Kamo River which run through the center of Kyoto, frequently caused flood. Because of this, it was nicknamed "The Wild River". Ryoi Suminokura thought hard to prevent the flood. The way which he found was constructing a canal, The Takase River. The Takase River is a canal which runs from Nijo to Fushimi and its total lengths is 10,500 meters. The structure of this canal is very rational. This canal is shallow, because it was designed for Takasebune, a ship which bilge was small depth. Its width was designed to be narrow, so that the water level rose when a ship passed by. Those which Takasebune carried through this canal were rice, charcoal, wood, salt, and so on. It also brought the energy of Osaka to Kyoto which lost vigor by relocation of the capital.



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