Hozugawa Kudari (descent of the Hozu River) 保津川下り

Sixteen kilometres of rapids to Arashiyama, in about two hours, on boats without engines.

Commercial navigation on the Hozu River was organised in the early seventeenth century by the merchant Suminokura Ryōi, the same man who a few years later dug the Takase Canal in Kyoto: it was used to carry timber and goods from Kameoka to the capital. Boat tourism began in the early twentieth century, when freight transport was replaced by the railway.

Kyoto