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TheTama River (多摩川,Tama-gawa) is a major river inYamanashi,Kanagawa and Tokyo Prefectures onHonshū, Japan. It is officially classified as a Class 1 river by theJapanese government. It is 138 kilometres (86 mi) long, and has a 1,240 square kilometres (480 sq mi) basin.
The river flows through theGreater Tokyo Area, on the dividing line between Tokyo and Kanagawa Prefectures. In Tokyo, its banks are lined with parks and sports fields, making the river a popular picnic spot.
The Tama's source is on Mt. Kasatori inKoshu inYamanashi Prefecture. From there, it flows eastward into mountainous western Tokyo, where the Ogōchi Dam formsLake Okutama. Below the dam, it takes the name Tama and flows eastwards throughChichibu Tama Kai National Park to the city ofŌme. It then flows southeast betweenTama Hills andMusashino Terrace. AtHamura is the source of the historicTamagawa Aqueduct built by theTamagawa brothers[1] in 1653 to supply water toEdo (present day Tokyo). Further downstream, the river forms the boundary between Tokyo and the city ofKawasaki inKanagawa Prefecture. Its mouth on the heavily industrialisedTokyo Bay is next toHaneda Airport.
Tama River is very prone to flooding, and has wrought havoc on surrounding areas throughout history. On occasions the river even changed its course after massive floods, sometimes dividing pre-existing settlements in two. As a result, there are several locations where the place names on opposing sides of the river are the same, such asTodoroki. The current course was set as a result of a 1590 flood.
Levees have been in place for hundreds of years, but floodwaters have breached them numerous times in history. Extensive engineering projects in the early 20th century have dramatically reduced the amount of flood damage, although a 1974typhoon caused floodwaters to burst a levee inKomae, washing away 19 houses. The levees have not been breached since 1974. Projects to further upgrade the levees have been underway since 1990.[citation needed]
As with most major rivers in Japan, the levees are built some distance away from the river itself to accommodate the extra floodwater. The open expanse between the levees and the river in the middle is covered in grass and shrubbery, forming a useful belt of greenery and wide open space which is used as playing fields in many places.[citation needed] Despite this extra space, the large amount of floodwater produced byTyphoon Hagibis in October 2019 flooded areas of Kawasaki City'sMusashi-Kosugi Station and nearby areas, causing infrastructural damage and power outages.[2][3]
Rapid post-war urbanization of surrounding areas took its toll on Tama River, whose water quality in the urban areas plummeted from the 1950s onwards rendering it uninhabitable for most species. Pollution control measures and the river's official designation as awildlife protection zone have now led to the return of many species.
Carp,rainbow trout,cherry salmon,iwana (char),ugui (big-scaled redfin) andayu all inhabit Tama River in sufficient numbers for limited commercial fishing to take place in upstream areas. Recent moves to fitweirs withfish ladders have resulted in a steep increase in the numbers of ayu migrating upstream. Other fish, such asloach inhabit the river, as do crabs, turtles and crayfish.
Japanese cormorants,kingfishers,white wagtails,eastern spot-billed ducks,grey herons,little egrets,Japanese white-eyes,mandarin ducks, andblack-headed gulls are among birds often seen at the river. Various types ofducks have made a comeback after the 1969 designation of the river as a wildlife protection zone. The expanse of greenery between the levees and the river itself attract additional wildlife.
In the summer of 2002,Tama-chan, a normally arctic malebearded seal first spotted in the Tama River by theMaruko Bridge, became a major nationwide celebrity.[4]
In recent years the Tama River has been settled by a larger number ofnon-native species includingred-eared slider turtles and tropical fish likepiranhas. It is assumed that life for tropical fish became possible because of higher water temperature of river due to global warming and waste water from sewage treatment plants. Those higher temperatures now allow tropical pet fish abandoned by their owners to survive the cold Japanese winters.[5] In the early 2000s, aKawasaki man named Mitsuaki Yamasaki established a "fish shelter" to house pet fish that owners would otherwise dump into the river.[6]
A large number of stray cats live along the river.[7]
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Some homeless people live near the Tama River.[8][9][10]
Near the outskirts of Tokyo, the river is a popular kayaking spot, with the Japan National Slalom Kayak competitions being held on the Tama River where it passes through Mitake.
This section of river is also a budding white water rafting andhydrospeeding destination being so accessible from Tokyo. Companies operate from early spring until late autumn.
The boulders on the riverbed aroundMitake also form one of Tokyo's premier climbing (bouldering) spots. Some of Japan's famous boulder problems can be found here, on boulders such as'Ninja rock' and 'Deadend'.
Further down, sports fields appear on both banks of the river, with many teams practicing or playing a range of sports here on a regular basis, including baseball, soccer andrugby union. (There is a rugby club named after the river, calledTamariba Club.) There are also many playgrounds, park spaces and golf driving ranges found on the side of the river as it passes through the city.
A bike path and running track travels the length of the river through urban Tokyo, extending to the river mouth in Tokyo bay.
The areas around Tama River on both sides have generally been suburban in nature, with a few low to mid-rise office buildings. High-rises were virtually nonexistent until the late 2000s, with the bottoming of Tokyo's two-decade-long real estate bubble collapse. This has changed with increased rail passenger services due to double tracking and line extensions and thru-services. The skyline has visibly changed atFutako-Tamagawa Station andMusashi-Kosugi Station but there are also renewed developments fromKeio-Tamagawa Station area downstream as the combination of urban convenience and wide open river space is an uncommon amenity in Tokyo's typically claustrophobic urban area.
Thelive-action outdoor night scenes from the openingFMV sequence of the originalResident Evil video game (known in Japan as "BIOHAZARD", where initial development and filming of all FMV scenes took place) were filmed near a riverbank of Tama, in heavily grassed parts of the shore's premises, roughly 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) away from Tokyo, sometime in late August/early September 1995. Filming at Tama was done in roughly 12 hours and lasted from 17:00 to 05:00 the next day.[11]
The asteroid1089 Tama was named after the Tama River.[12]
The river was featured heavily in the manga and anime series365 Days to the Wedding.[citation needed]
35°31′18″N139°47′54″E / 35.521784°N 139.798333°E /35.521784; 139.798333 (mouth)
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