Title:

Mr. Saito, the gentleman of river management and Arakawa

齋藤治水翁と荒川

Category:

Non-Designated Cultural Property

Location:

452 Iida-Shinden

The "river management gentleman", Yubi Saito was born towards the end of the Edo Period in 1866, in his hometown of Iida-Shinden.

In terms of his home life, despite coming from a long line of doctors, he became a journalist, leading him to be voted into the Saitama Prefectural Council in 1899. Saito devoted the most of the following 40 years working in the prefectural government.

During that time, due to damages caused by the disastrous flooding of the Arakawa River, he fully realised the necessity for river management. Saito then formed the Saitama River Management Assembly and the Tokyo-Saitama River Management Union before facilitating the excavation of the New Arakawa River.

The excavation in the Mamiya area was started in 1920, and was a fully functioning river within the next 15 years.

These groups raised embankments and built towns resistant to water damage.

Yubi Saito, having provided relief from water damage to his birth-place and to Mamiya, died in 1943. He was given the name "River Management Gentleman" for his services to river management, and was nominated as an honorary citizen of Omiya City on June 22, 1973.

Additionally, a monument honoring the contribution and achievements of Saito the river management gentleman was erected in 1951, conveying this gentleman's achievements to the modern generation.

Inquiries (Japanese only)

Cultural Heritage Preservation Division, Department of Lifelong Learning, Board of Education Secretariat　

TEL：048-829-1723 FAX：048-829-1989

https://www.city.saitama.lg.jp/nishi/001/003/001/002/p128037.html