This autumn, the old shipping route that connected Kyoto, Fushimi and Osaka via the Yodo River will be revived for the first time in 62 years. It is a one-day event leading up to the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo, and on October 13th, tourist boats will travel the 18km "Fushimi Route" from the Yodo River in Hirakata City, Osaka Prefecture to Uji River, Fushimi Port (Fushimi Ward, Kyoto City).
The event will be organized by the "Yodo River Shipping Revitalization Council," which is made up of the Kinki Regional Development Bureau and local governments in the river basin. The council has been conducting experimental operations and dredging the river to turn shipping into a tourist resource with an eye on the 2025 Expo. A "lock gate" that will allow boats to pass through to Osaka Bay, where the Expo site Yumeshima (Osaka City) is located, is scheduled to be completed by spring 2025 downstream of the Yodo River, and the development of a tourist route from Kyoto to Yumeshima by boat is also underway.
Yodo River shipping developed with the development of Fushimi Port by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Even in modern times, it supported transportation and logistics between Kyoto and Osaka for a long time, including transporting coal, but with the postwar development of land transportation such as railways and road networks, freight transport ended in 1962.
The event is the Yodo River Cruise Festival. Ships and boats will operate over four sections of about 45 kilometers from Hachikenyahama (Osaka City) downstream of Temmabashi on the Yodo River to Amagase Dam (Uji City, Kyoto Prefecture) upstream on the Uji River. On one section, a medium-sized ship in the style of a 30-koku boat will travel back and forth between Hirakata and Fushimi Port, with a crew of about 40 people.
Reservations are required for some boats. Information on applications and fees will be announced on the event's website in the future.
