as one of the three world economic deprivations $ ^{Note} $ by the Emperor Shirakawa, the personage who had ultimate ascendancy during the late Heian period. Like the Kamogawa River in this example, there were many rivers that were strategically placed traffic-wise, but were unsuitable for ship transport.

Ryōi voluntarily invested in the waterway and started opening shipping lines. The Takasegawa River was substituted for the Kamogawa River, as it was considered an unsuitable channel. Instead of using the Kamogawa River, a 10km long canal was dug to channel the water drawn from the Kamogawa River within Kyoto City in to the Ujigawa River in Fushimi. It is said that Ryōi not only bore the cost of acquiring land for the construction of the canal, he also paid for the land tax that the land acquired for the canal excavation had accrued previous to purchase. Ryōi died in the summer of 1614, but the project was passed to his son Soan, and completed in the autumn of that same year. The opening of the shipping line in this section connected the water route that ran from Osaka to Kyoto, forming a wide-

Figure 2-2-16 Takasegawa River during Edo Period

(Note) For upstream ship transportation on the river, boat pullers manually pulled and moved the boat along the river as shown in the figure.

Source) National Diet Library

area commercial distribution zone, and contributing to the promotion of local industry and the stabilization of the lives of local residents. Coincidentally, the year 2014, when this White Paper is to be published, will be exactly 400 years since the death of Ryōi.

(References)

Akira Miyata (2013) “The World of Ryōi Suminokura”

Taisei Shuppan Co. Ltd

Takayoshi Ishida (2005) “Kyoto’s Takasegawa River-Heritage of Ryōi and Soan Suminokura” Shibunkaku Shuppan Co. Ltd

Figure 2-2-17 Map of Takasegawa Basin

Source) Akira Miyata “The World of Ryōi Suminokura”

Note It was said that the Emperor Shirakawa listed three things he could not command: the flood damage caused by the Kamogawa River, the roll of the dice on a sugoroku board, and the armed priests, and despaired over these problems.

## (2) Comprehensive Work Consignment to Private Sector

The basic idea behind comprehensive work consignment to private sector is that projects that had been consigned one year at a time would be consigned as a multi-year contract in a single, collective order for each individual business. In addition, once the required standards have been established, determining what the business operation content necessary for meeting the requirements would be left to the contractor to decide as part of the “Performance Specification Contract.”

The merits for the public entities—as the consignors—are that the public labor cost will be reduced due to the decreased amount of business, and that the cost for the consigned business fee will be reduced by having the ingenuity of the private sector put to work by the performance specification contract. Meanwhile, for the private businesses that are the contractors, the economies of scale will work in their favor by receiving several businesses in a collective order, making it easier to make profit. The multi-year contract also allows the contractors to forecast future business volume, making it easier to