2312-Sugita Dam/Suidamu

Location: Sugita, Tosayamada-cho, Kami City, Kochi Prefecture
Date of interview: Friday, 11/19/2010

View of the embankment on the lake side from the left bank

On the last day of our trip to Shikoku, we stopped by this dam on our way back from playing at the Anpanman Museum in Kami City. Sugita Dam" is not "Sugita" but "Suita". It is one of the hard-to-read dams, but I had always thought it was "Ougita" until I wrote this article.

View of water intake facilities from the left bank

Sugita Dam is a dedicated power generation dam owned by Kochi Prefecture, and apparently also serves to reverse the peak load flow of the Nagase and Yoshino power plants located upstream. The maximum authorized output is 11,500 kW, which is the amount of electricity used by about 15,000 ordinary households in a year.

View of the dam nameplate

It is a power generation dam.weirThe company calls itself "The

The words "Completion 1959 Kochi Prefecture" and "Construction Hazama Gumi" are written at the back of the building.

The atmosphere is quite tasteful. The construction was completed in 1959, and the embankment was built by ma-gumi.

View of the top edge from the left bank

The top end is wide enough for a light car to manage to pass through, but on this day, not a single car passed through.

View of the gate pier of the water intake facility

There appear to be two water intakes, but details are unknown.

View downstream from the top

They have one Kaplan-type water turbine generator under the steel plate under the crane on the left. To the right of it is the discharge outlet. Further in, there is a sub-dam, but it is located a bit further away than one might expect.

View of Gate Pier

The gate piers on which the gate winder is placed. The green color was quite dazzling, as if it had been recently painted. There are four radial crest gates.

View downstream from the top

Looking at pictures on the Internet, it seems that they release the fish quite often, but unfortunately they were not releasing them on this day.

View of the dam lake from the top

It is a reasonably quiet dam, although a national highway passes nearby and there is relatively heavy traffic.

Looking toward the skyline from the right bank

The new green and yellow paint looks somewhat toy-like.

View of the levee downstream from the right bank

Ugh, the trees are in the way, making it hard to take a picture (sweat).
I wanted to manage to hold the levee on the downstream side from the right bank side, but I could not see much of the levee when I climbed up to higher ground, so I gave up.

Anpanman bus

In the meantime, an Anpanman bus was on the national highway on the other side of the river! My son was overjoyed by this!

View of the levee downstream from the left bank

Now, we will return to the left bank where we parked our car and aim at the levee on the downstream side. However, the public is only allowed to enter up to this point. We wanted to see the whole area, so we aimed a little downstream. However, when we look downstream, it looks like a footpath between rice paddies, so we park our car here and head downstream on foot because it is not likely to be accessible by car.

View of the levee downstream from the left bank

Oh, I could manage to see it from downstream! As I was doing this and that, I saw in the distance a work truck parked in front of my car on the opposite side of the road. I thought to myself, "Whoa! I'm in the way! I thought, and gave up taking pictures. I ran back to my car. "Sorry!" I immediately went to apologize. But the truck was about to move into the control center and my car was moved a little. I had left my wife and child in the car, and it seemed that the person in the truck had moved them.

I thought he was going to be very angry with me, but he responded with a smile, and I really felt the good-naturedness of the people of Shikoku. I thought my wife was going to get angry too, but she got into the car and said, "I'm going to move the car," and didn't seem to be particularly angry. In Aichi, people would definitely honk their horns at us (bitter).

But Shikoku is full of delicious food, kind people, and wonderful dams. I have grown quite fond of Shikoku.

Sugita Dam Specifications

Other facilities/observations

There is somewhat of a space on the left bank by the dam lake, so you can park your car there and visit.

Accommodations that may be close to Sugita Dam