Maegawa Channel

The stone-paved Maegawa Channel runs the full length of Kumagawa-juku, the post town it helped sustain since the early seventeenth century. Built to supply drinking water and support daily life, the channel had stone steps called kawato built at intervals so residents could wash clothes and vegetables directly from its banks. Travelers and their horses drank from it too. A clever device called imoarai used the current to spin a barrel on a pole, peeling potatoes by tumbling them. Modern plumbing made those functions obsolete, but the channel still helps drain snowmelt in winter and remains an integral part of the town's historic character.