The “Waterwheel” inside Shukugawa Park
Shukugawa Park gets crowded with cherry blossom viewers when sakura season comes around, and many of you may know that there’s a waterwheel here.
This waterwheel is near Oide Bridge.
Setting aside the silver part on the left, it looks like a nicely restored old waterwheel.
There was a sign explaining its history.
Reading the eight lines of text from the right side carefully, it ended with this:
“It is not known in detail what shape the waterwheels of the time had, and the waterwheel placed in this square is not a restoration of an actual waterwheel from that period.”
So it’s not restored after all?!
You can’t help wanting to make that comeback.
That said, it seems that rice polished by waterwheels powered by the flow of the Shukugawa River led to the creation of “Nada no Kiippon,”
so I did learn that Shukugawa was deeply connected to sake brewing.
And true, even though this waterwheel is made to look super old-fashioned, the left side is very clearly iron? stainless steel?
So which is it trying to be, old-style or modern?!
I’ve never seen the waterwheel actually turning…
I wonder if there are days when it does.
