Qualla: Hatanagi-I Dam https://qualla.com/hatanagi-i-dam en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:40 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/6/2/hatanagi-i-dam-wp/hatanagi-i-dam-lake.jpg Qualla: Hatanagi-I Dam https://qualla.com/hatanagi-i-dam Hatanagi-I Dam: Introduction https://qualla.com/hatanagi-i-dam/ Photo credit Qurren, CC BY-SA 3.0. The United Nations does not typically build dams. But on September 10, 1958, the Bank for Reconstruction and Development signed a loan agreement with the Chubu Electric Power Company to fund a structure that would become a world record holder. Deep in the mountains of Shizuoka Prefecture, where the Oi River cuts through gorges in the Minami Alps, engineers were about to raise the tallest hollow-core concrete gravity dam ever built. At 125 meters, Hatanagi-I would stand taller than a thirty-story building, its honeycomb interior a feat of structural ingenuity that used less concrete than a solid dam while holding back an entire river valley's worth of water.

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Image: Qurren | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/6/2/hatanagi-i-dam-wp/xn62-hatanagi-i-dam-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Hatanagi-I Dam: A River's Potential, a Century in the Making https://qualla.com/hatanagi-i-dam/ Photo credit Photographed by Qurren (talk), with IXY Digital 70 compact digital camera., CC BY-SA 3.0. The Oi River had been on engineers' minds since the Meiji era. At the turn of the twentieth century, government planners recognized that the river's fast current, steep mountain tributaries, and abundant rainfall made it ideal for hydroelectric power. The valley was sparsely popu...

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Image: Photographed by Qurren (talk), with IXY Digital 70 compact digital camera. | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/6/2/hatanagi-i-dam-wp/xn62-hatanagi-i-dam-a-rivers-potential-a-century-in-the-making.mp3 0:06 2 full Hatanagi-I Dam: The Hollow Heart https://qualla.com/hatanagi-i-dam/ Photo credit Photographed by Qurren (talk), with IXY Digital 70 compact digital camera., CC BY-SA 3.0. What makes Hatanagi-I remarkable is not just its height but what is inside it, or rather, what is not. A hollow-core gravity dam uses a series of internal chambers and buttresses rather than solid mass to resist the pressure of impounded water. The technique requires less concret...

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Image: Photographed by Qurren (talk), with IXY Digital 70 compact digital camera. | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/6/2/hatanagi-i-dam-wp/xn62-hatanagi-i-dam-the-hollow-heart.mp3 0:06 3 full Hatanagi-I Dam: The Railway That Made It Possible https://qualla.com/hatanagi-i-dam/ Photo credit Photographed by Qurren (talk), with IXY Digital 70 compact digital camera., CC BY-SA 3.0. Building a record-setting dam in a remote mountain gorge requires moving enormous quantities of material through difficult terrain. The Oigawa Railway Ikawa Line, originally built in 1935 to carry workers and supplies for earlier dam projects, was expanded to serve the Hatanagi c...

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Image: Photographed by Qurren (talk), with IXY Digital 70 compact digital camera. | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/6/2/hatanagi-i-dam-wp/xn62-hatanagi-i-dam-the-railway-that-made-it-possible.mp3 0:06 4 full Hatanagi-I Dam: Water for a Prefecture https://qualla.com/hatanagi-i-dam/ Photo credit Photographed by Qurren (talk), with IXY Digital 70 compact digital camera., CC BY-SA 3.0. The lake created behind Hatanagi-I serves purposes well beyond electricity generation. It is an important source of tap water, industrial water, and irrigation for Shizuoka Prefecture, a region whose economy depends on tea cultivation, manufacturing, and agriculture. The reservoi...

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Image: Photographed by Qurren (talk), with IXY Digital 70 compact digital camera. | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/6/2/hatanagi-i-dam-wp/xn62-hatanagi-i-dam-water-for-a-prefecture.mp3 0:06 5 full Hatanagi-I Dam: Concrete and Consequence https://qualla.com/hatanagi-i-dam/ Photo credit Photographed by Qurren (talk), with IXY Digital 70 compact digital camera., CC BY-SA 3.0. Hatanagi-I came online in early 1962, the culmination of a construction effort that began with that World Bank loan in 1958. The dam represents a particular moment in Japan's history: a country rebuilding itself through infrastructure, channeling international aid into industrial...

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Image: Photographed by Qurren (talk), with IXY Digital 70 compact digital camera. | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/6/2/hatanagi-i-dam-wp/xn62-hatanagi-i-dam-concrete-and-consequence.mp3 0:06 6 full