Kanda, one of the best known rivers in Tokyo is, in fact, not a river at all. It is a canal built by the Tokugawa shogunate at the beginning of the Edo period to supply the city with water. The canal is fed with water by many small streams and by springs located around the Inokashira Park.

The Kanda river crosses Tokyo over a length of 24.6 km, until it merges into the Sumida River, and it was used both as water supply and as transportation route.

Photographed here is one of the notable locations along the Kanda river, called Ochanomizu, which means “tea water". The name comes from the fact that here was the source of water used by the Edo Castle to prepare the shogun’s tea.

Ochanomizu, Tokyo

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Yesterday’s Japan Photo: Tokyo New Otani garden