Yodo River

The Yodo River basin has occupied an extremely important position as the center of Japanese politics, culture, and economy since ancient times. Therefore, river improvement works were repeated, starting with the construction of the Ibaraki embankment during the reign of Emperor Nintoku, but floods occurred frequently. The Nara Period monk Gyōki believed that in order to prevent flooding around Lake Biwa, it was necessary to drain more lake water into the Seta River, the only outflow river, and attempted to excavate a small mountain along the Seta River. Because this mountain jutted out into the river, there were places where the Seta River suddenly narrowed, and when heavy rain hit the upstream, the water was dammed and flooded the upstream frequently. In the end, Gyoki gave up the plan for fear that excavating the mountain would cause flooding downstream.

The choice of the ancient capital Heian-kyō (now Kyoto) during the Heian period, was partly chosen because of the presence of the Yodo river that flows towards Osaka, and its outlet on the Seto Inland Sea. Emperor Shirakawa, who lived in the late Heian period, listed flood control of the Kamo River, upstream of the Yodo River, as one of the "Three Undesirable Things in the World" that do not go as planned, along with the warrior monks of Enryaku-ji on Mount Hiei and the dice rolls in the game of sugoroku. The Uji River has a prominent place in the so-called "Uji chapters" of The Tale of Genji, a novel written by the Japanese noblewoman Murasaki Shikibu in the early eleventh century.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who unified the country during the Sengoku period, renovated the Uji River (Oguraike Pond) when he moved to Fushimi in his later years, including the construction of the Taikō Embankment. These levees led to Fushimi flourishing as a key transportation hub. During the Edo Period, the Kamo River to transport materials for the construction of the Great Buddha Hall of Hōkō-ji (the Great Buddha of Kyoto) at the command of Tokugawa Ieyasu, and the Takase River was excavated as a permanent canal. They developed water transportation to Kyoto and developed logistics. In Osaka, Dotonbori was excavated, and as the city, which had been devastated by the Siege of Osaka, was rebuilt, water transportation and bridges were also developed. Osaka was praised for its "808 bridges" compared to Edo's "808 towns." Furthermore, with the advancement of agricultural technology and the Tokugawa Shogunate's encouragement of new paddy field development, the reclamation of Oguraike Pond in Uji also began. As the economy became more active, the collection of firewood and charcoal and the development of new rice fields progressed, leading to deforestation in the river basin. The loss of forests led to the inflow of sediment from mountainous areas, which led to the rise of riverbeds, which caused flooding. For this reason, the Shogunate issued an order in 1660 banning the mining of tree stumps in Yamashiro, Yamato, and Iga Provinces. Dredges of the Seta River in the Edo period were first carried out in 1670, in response to petitions from villages along Lake Biwa, as a matter of national interest. In 1683, Inaba Masayasu and Kawamura Zuiken inspected the site, and in 1684, the year after Inaba's downfall, Kawamura carried out river improvement work. Furthermore, in 1699, a large-scale construction project called "Kawamura Zuiken's Great Construction" was carried out.

The river continued to play a very important role for the movement and transport of goods between Osaka and Kyoto, until the arrival of the first trains in the 1870s. In 1858, it is estimated there were 50 boats daily of all types that carried about 1,500 people from Osaka to Fushimi. In the 19th century, a trip by steamboat between Osaka and Fushimi could take 12 hours.^[1]

Nowadays, the Uji River, or the Yodo River in Kyoto Prefecture, is a popular fishing spot during the summer and fall months.

There are more than 50 bridges that cross the Yodo river. These include bridges for cars and trains.