The title says it all: this is a museum about the ancient Sayama Irrigation Pond (the oldest in the country) and the most important exhibit is a huge slice of mud of the dam built to create the reservoir 1,400 years ago (and enlarged over the centuries). This mud wall (62 meters long and 15 meters high) has been encased within Ando Tadao’s characteristic walls of impeccable, smooth concrete, an excellent combination…
[The entrance to the museum]
Of course, Ando has built more than walls: the Sayamaike Museum is one of his most interesting creations, with a great water garden through which the approach leads, and also an interesting circular inner courtyard where you enter the museum. It stands at the edge of the Sayama Pond which now serves as a flood control reservoir in this small town in the southern part of Osaka Prefecture.
[The main museum building encasing the “mud wall,” seen from across the roof pond]
The museum is only a 10 min. walk from Osakasayamashi Station on the Nankai Koya line, first through the narrow streets of the old town (with some nice houses remaining) and then over the dyke that has been built around the Sayama Pond. At the entrance you will find walls of natural stone as if to emphasize the link with the environment.
The museum itself consists of two rectangular boxes with a water garden in between. They are linked at the far end by a circular plaza where also the entrance to the museum is. The water garden consists of three pools on different levels, two on the roofs of buildings and one at a lower level in between them, with cascading water curtains raining down into the lower pond to connect everything.
[The water curtain falling from the roof pond into the pond below]
You approach the museum with the roar of all that water in your ears. You are being irrigated, it is as if you are walking on the bottom of the ancient pond… A most suitable image for a pond museum…
[The water curtain seen from the inside walkway]
In the courtyard, staircases and walkways lead up the circular wall to the entrance which is on a higher level, under a slab of concrete acting as a sun roof. As is always the case with Ando, the concrete is completely smooth, like a warm skin and has nothing of the ugliness usually associated with this material.
[The circular courtyard with the second floor entrance]
And then the mud. The mud, too, was revealed as very interesting, as the museum demonstrates what can be read from that mud. You have a history of 1,400 years right before your eyes in the form of the different layers. A wooden pipe (hollow trees) was built through the dam to bring the water to the other side for irrigating the fields. On the pond side, it could be closed by a pole when no water was needed.
The wood has been dated to the first half of the seventh century, the Asuka Period, apparrently a time when many large trees could still be found all over Japan. An interesting technique was used to build the dam: twigs with leaves were mixed through the mud to make the construction stronger. This technique came from China via Korea and was used on other old sites in Japan as well.
[The mud wall, stamped earth 1,400 years old]
The museum shows how advanced ancient (water) engineering in Japan was and the exhibition follows the history of the Sayama Pond through the ages. In the Nara Period the famous priest Gyoki was two times involved. Gyoki was known for his pond building and irrigation projects. In the first half of the 8th c. he restored the pond, thirty years later he completely rebuilt the dam and made the pond twice as large. It was important to maintain ponds for irrigation, so that more land could be developed for agriculture. Gyoki also built many temples and was involved in the establishment of Todaiji.
[The irrigation pipes from the Nara period]
By coincidence, in the early 13th century another famous priest who was associated with Todaiji, Chogen, again undertook important restoration work on the pond. Chogen had to completely rebuild Todaiji after the temple had been destroyed during the civil wars of the 12th c. At Sayama Pond, he demonstrated his practical inclination: the irrigation pipes had to be rebuilt quickly to be in time for the next rice planting, so instead of laboriously cutting trees he used stone coffins from the many Kofun Tumuli scattered in the area of southern Osaka…
Not very compassionate towards the memory of the deceased, but presumably, those graves had been robbed already and the contents were lying scattered about. Chogen took the coffins and bored holes in the front and back. By placing them in a row, and covering them with the heavy stone lids, he so created a prefect irrigation pipe! Chogen had his achievements cut in stone and placed near the pipes - the stone now stands in the museum, at the feet of the statue of Chogen.
[The lower level pond in the water garden]
The next restoration comes in the early 17th century and was undertaken by Katsumoto Katagiri, a retainer of the Toyotomi clan. Techniques were much advanced now: wooden cribwork was inserted into the dam to prevent landslides and the bottom parts of ships were used for the large irrigation pipes. The water intake was also moved from the bottom of the lake (where the water is rather cold) to near the surface (where it is warmer). As the water level could vary, several intake points were created one above the other, as the holes of a shakuhachi flute. The stone coffins of Chogen were not used for water pipes this time, but were placed near the intake points to fortify the dike.
In the early 20th century, finally, a concrete intake tower was built, which became the symbol of Sayama Pond. It has now also been moved to the museum, presumably because it became brittle.
[Sayama pond. There is a jogging path around it. The museum stands to the right, behind the dyke]
The exhibits in this wonderful museum are enhanced by numerous informative videos. I only thought I would be there for thirty minutes, but I ended up spending three hours! My only small point of criticism is that a bench in front of the video screens would be helpful, and that English subtitles would be an extra kindness to foreign visitors. But then, admission was free…
Osaka Pref. Sayamaike Museum
Address: 2-chome, Ikijiri-naka, Osakasayama City, Osaka Pref.; Phone: 072-367-8891
Hours: 10:00-17:00; Closed: Mondays (except when a National Holiday) , Old/New Year period.
Access: Nankai Koya line to Osakasayamashi Station and then a 10-min walk.
There is a nice coffee restaurant in the museum, as well as a library.
