Engineering Projects (2)
The Construction of Seawalls and Roads
Breakwater at Toishizaki
Civil Engineering Tools Designed by Father de Rotz (Father de Rotz Memorial Hall)
Few fishing boats landed at Sotome due to its inconvenient location, with hardly any inlets for boats to anchor and leave from. To solve this problem, in 1885 Father de Rotz (1840–1914) constructed seawalls along the coast of Shitsu that provided fishing boats with safe spots to anchor and from which to fish.
Another example of de Rotz’s engineering projects was providing tools to male villagers so that they could earn wages and help lead road-building efforts.
During this road construction project, Sotome suffered a famine. In order to help the construction workers to not go hungry, de Rotz ordered a large amount of rice cakes to sell to the villagers at their original price. And as a consequence of the resulting prefectural road system, the isolated villages of Sotome became more easily accessible.