Nishikanbara

Western Kanbara is a low-lying plain of rivers, lagoons and rice fields in Echigo. Flooding and standing water made cultivation arduous: farmers worked in deep mud and raised their fields with soil carried by boat. Plans to drain the lagoons into the Sea of Japan met opposition from Niigata, which feared the loss of water needed by its port. Work finally began in 1818, and the Uchino Shinkawa channel was completed in 1820, passing beneath the Nishikawa by means of a buried conduit.