Keage Incline

The Keage Incline is a long, sloping stone track that rises through the hillside, flanked by cherry trees and rusted iron rails. It served as a vital water transport link for the Lake Biwa Canal, allowing flat-bottomed boats to bypass the steep descent between the canal levels. In eighteen ninety-one, laborers hauled these heavy cargo boats onto rail carts to pull them up the slope using a massive electric winch. It remains a skeleton of Kyoto’s rapid modernization during the Meiji era.