手賀沼の風景―Scenery of Lake Teganuma(December 23, 2021-No.34）

手賀沼の風景―Scenery of Lake Teganuma(December 23, 2021-No.34）

Lake Teganuma is a lake in the Tone River system（利根川水系） that straddles Kashiwa City and Abiko City in the northern part of Chiba Prefecture. The area of the lake is 6.5 square kilometers, the circumference is 38 kilometers, and the maximum water depth is 3.8 meters.

Until around 1955, Lake Teganuma was a clear lake with a large catch of eels and the like. It is said that the bottom of the water could be seen through, the children swam in the lake, and the fishermen scooped the water from the lake and drank it. After that, with the urbanization of the surrounding area due to the high economic growth, domestic wastewater and industrial wastewater were drained into the Ohori and Otsu rivers that flow into Lake Teganuma. As a result, the water pollution and eutrophication（富栄養化） of the lake became one of the worst in Japan. Chiba Prefecture and Abiko City have continued to carry out efforts to purify water and raise awareness for water quality conservation, and although there is a trend toward improvement, the situation is far from the previous water quality.

The area around Lake Teganuma has excellent cycling roads and promenades, making it ideal for walking. The course that goes around the lake from Abiko Station or Kitakashiwa Station on the JR Joban Line across the Tega Ohashi Bridge（手賀大橋） in the center of the lake is about 10 kilometers long, and has been selected as one of the 500 best roads in Japan（日本の歩きたい道５００選）. In the vicinity, there are attractions such as Teganuma Park, Naoya Shiga（志賀直哉） villa ruins, former Saneatu Musyanokoji（武者小路実篤） villa ruins, Jigoro Kano（嘉納治五郎）villa ruins, Shirakaba Literary Museum（白樺文学館）, Yamashina Institute for Birds（山科鳥類研究所）, and Abiko City Museum of Birds（鳥の博物館）.

I think it will be a good opportunity to think about the conservation of the natural environment and the development of cities, or the coexistence of nature and humans.

Teganuma seen from Teganuma Park (Abiko City)

Lake Teganuma seen from the promenade (Kashiwa City)

Whooper swan（オオハクチョウ） that came down nearby

Teganuma Hydro Plaza（手賀沼親水公園） and Yamashina Institute for Ornithology（山科鳥類研究所）

Naoya Shiga（志賀直哉） villa ruins. Naoya Shiga is a Japanese novelist. He is one of the leading novelists of the Shirakabaha school（白樺派） who was active from the Meiji era to the Showa era. Naoya Shiga lived in Abiko from 1915 (Taisho 4) to 1923 (Taisho 12). In Abiko, novels such as "At Ki no Saki"（城の崎にて）, "Reconciliation"（和解）, "God of the Little Boy"（小僧の神様）, and "Dark Night Route" （暗夜行路）were born.

South side of Teganuma taken from Tega Ohashi

Scenery of Lake Teganuma taken on August 11, 2010