After Meiji Restoration(succesive events in the second half of 1860s),Kyôto finally lost its status for the capital city in Japan even nominally(already in the Edo period(from 17C to Meiji Restoration) Japan's real capital had been Edo(now Tôkyô),where shôguns had lived,but Kyôto had still been the place where emperors and nobles had resided,although they utterly had lost their real power and been regarded only as noble residues of the ancient times).
In 1850s,when young samurais toppled the last shôgun and instead of him set the Emperor Meiji to the throne with real power,they decided to let him move to the real capital,which got changed its name to Tôkyô.
Then,Kyoto became only a prefectural capital.

Biwako Sosui(the Lake Biwa Canal) was digged for the purpose of a rehabilitation of this glory-lost city through vitalizing water transport and making electoricity by its water current.
Its design was drawn by Tanabe Sakurô(1861�]1944),an engineer,and he also directed its construcion.
The first part of the canal was accomplished in 1890.
It derives from Lake Biwa,on the east of and beyond the Hiei mountains range from Kyôto City.Then it flows under Ôsakanoseki,a barrier station of the past ages to separate between Kyoto and the earstern provinces,makes its way through Yamashina,a small basin in the eastern part of Kyôto City,digs its way again under Higashiyama hills,a low branch range of the Hiei mountains,and finally springs out onto the Kyôto Basin,near Nanzenji.
Now this canal is used mainly for water supply and partly for generating electoricity,but is not used for transport any more,only lends its surface to water birds which sail across the tiny pool in Okazaki,west of Nanzenji and on the way to the Kamo River into which one of its streams flows.

In late autumn,tinted leaves can be seen alongside this canal,from Yamashina to Nanzenji,although the good places for red and yellow color to see in this season are never restricted in these areas.
Pictures below show landscapes of tinted leaves alongside the canal as well as an eastern neighborhood of Kyôto called Higashiyama.

Canal flowing through Yamashina.	At Nishi Ôtani(in Higashiyama)
Tôfukuji(in south Higashiyama)	At a temple near Nanzenji.
A flow from the canal near Nanzenji.
Higashi Ôtani(in Higashiyama,near Maruyama Park)	At Nanzenji.

-Taken in Nov,2001(Yamashina and Higashi Ôtani) and Nov,2004(Nanzenji,Nishi Ôtani,and Tôfukuji)-

MEMO
The places seen above are all famous,so I don't have to add to guidebooks any more explanation.
However,I'd like to tell my bitter experience.
West of Nanzenji,there is an abolished railway,called Inkurain(an inclined railway to carry ships on wagons to higher places,which was made as the attached facility of the canal).
From this once worked line to the road running beneath,there is a difference in level made by a stone wall.
For me that difference seemed rather trivial,so I jumped down from the stage,and I had my ankle wrenched.
It is really over 1.5 meters high.
So,never try to make a dive there unless you are over 3 meters tall...