Jeffrey Friedl's Blog » The Thrill of Japan’s Biggest Waterwheel

The Thrill of Japan’s Biggest Waterwheel

by Jeffrey Friedl Wed, May 7th, 2014 8:31pm JST (10 years, 7 months ago)

“ Japan's Biggest Waterwheel ” whoop-de-do at the Michinoku Hot Springs (みちのく温泉), Aomori Prefecture -- Michinoku Hot Springs (みちのく温泉) -- Nishitsugaru, Aomori, Japan -- Copyright 2014 Jeffrey Friedl, https://regex.info/blog/ -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (non-commercial use is freely allowed if proper attribution is given, including a link back to this page on http://regex.info/ when used online)

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — ¹/1000 sec, f/3.2, ISO 160 — map & image data — nearby photos
“Japan's Biggest Waterwheel”
whoop-de-do
at the Michinoku Hot Springs (みちのく温泉), Aomori Prefecture

While driving around the sparsely-populated coastal/mountain area of western Aomori Prefecture at the northern end of Japan's main island during a short family trip last week, in the middle of nowhere we suddenly came across something billing itself as “Japan's largest waterwheel”.

It seemed at least a bit photogenic, so I stopped for a quick look.

Michinoku Hot Springs (みちのく温泉) -- Nishitsugaru, Aomori, Japan -- Copyright 2014 Jeffrey Friedl, https://regex.info/blog/ -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (non-commercial use is freely allowed if proper attribution is given, including a link back to this page on http://regex.info/ when used online)

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — ¹/320 sec, f/3.2, ISO 160 — map & image data — nearby photos

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — ¹/500 sec, f/5, ISO 160 — map & image data — nearby photos

The tree in the lower left of the photo above hosted the “Dark, Brooding Camellia” (乙女椿) that I posed last week.

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/500 sec, f/4, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos

The “dark brooding” was because of an underexposure. A shot soon after was way overexposed, but I think I recovered something interesting(?) in Lightroom...

Overexposed and Overprocessed -- Michinoku Hot Springs (みちのく温泉) -- Nishitsugaru, Aomori, Japan -- Copyright 2014 Jeffrey Friedl, https://regex.info/blog/ -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (non-commercial use is freely allowed if proper attribution is given, including a link back to this page on http://regex.info/ when used online)

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/160 sec, f/8, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Overexposed and Overprocessed

Eventually I got it right.

desktop background image of a pink Japanese camellia (乙女椿) -- Michinoku Hot Springs (みちのく温泉) -- Nishitsugaru, Aomori, Japan -- Copyright 2014 Jeffrey Friedl, https://regex.info/blog/ -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (non-commercial use is freely allowed if proper attribution is given, including a link back to this page on http://regex.info/ when used online)

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/500 sec, f/8, ISO 1800 — map & image data — nearby photos

Desktop-Background Versions
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Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/500 sec, f/8, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos

Desktop-Background Versions
1280×800 · 1680×1050 · 1920×1200 · 2560×1600 · 2880×1800

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/2000 sec, f/2.5, ISO 160 — map & image data — nearby photos

I suppose the one above is not the best example from the tree, but I was still happy with some of the shots that I got. Then the other day my friend Akiko posted some camillia shots on her blog that put mine to shame. I've got to try harder next time.

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — ¹/640 sec, f/9, ISO 160 — map & image data — nearby photos

Inside the Waterwheel the wheel drives the chain descending at left power split between up/down pounders at rear, and rice grinding in foreground -- Michinoku Hot Springs (みちのく温泉) -- Nishitsugaru, Aomori, Japan -- Copyright 2014 Jeffrey Friedl, https://regex.info/blog/ -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (non-commercial use is freely allowed if proper attribution is given, including a link back to this page on http://regex.info/ when used online)

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — ¹/100 sec, f/2.8, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Inside the Waterwheel
the wheel drives the chain descending at left
power split between up/down pounders at rear, and rice grinding in foreground

Pounders rotational energy lifts heavy beams, lets gravity drop them onto beans -- Michinoku Hot Springs (みちのく温泉) -- Nishitsugaru, Aomori, Japan -- Copyright 2014 Jeffrey Friedl, https://regex.info/blog/ -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (non-commercial use is freely allowed if proper attribution is given, including a link back to this page on http://regex.info/ when used online)

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — ¹/100 sec, f/2.8, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Pounders
rotational energy lifts heavy beams, lets gravity drop them onto beans

It looks like they're making kinako, as we did at home years ago.

Business End -- Michinoku Hot Springs (みちのく温泉) -- Nishitsugaru, Aomori, Japan -- Copyright 2014 Jeffrey Friedl, https://regex.info/blog/ -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (non-commercial use is freely allowed if proper attribution is given, including a link back to this page on http://regex.info/ when used online)

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — ¹/100 sec, f/2.8, ISO 720 — map & image data — nearby photos
Business End

One could wander up to the top of the service building where the wheel's axle came in. I didn't see a soul the whole time I was at the property, so I hope it was okay that I went up. The view out the window was nice...

Missing a Lynchpin -- Michinoku Hot Springs (みちのく温泉) -- Nishitsugaru, Aomori, Japan -- Copyright 2014 Jeffrey Friedl, https://regex.info/blog/ -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (non-commercial use is freely allowed if proper attribution is given, including a link back to this page on http://regex.info/ when used online)

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — ¹/100 sec, f/9, ISO 160 — map & image data — nearby photos
Missing a Lynchpin

Looking Back Down -- Michinoku Hot Springs (みちのく温泉) -- Nishitsugaru, Aomori, Japan -- Copyright 2014 Jeffrey Friedl, https://regex.info/blog/ -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (non-commercial use is freely allowed if proper attribution is given, including a link back to this page on http://regex.info/ when used online)

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 26mm — ¹/100 sec, f/9, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Looking Back Down

Tea Room Next Door also deserted -- Michinoku Hot Springs (みちのく温泉) -- Nishitsugaru, Aomori, Japan -- Copyright 2014 Jeffrey Friedl, https://regex.info/blog/ -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (non-commercial use is freely allowed if proper attribution is given, including a link back to this page on http://regex.info/ when used online)

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — ¹/100 sec, f/2.8, ISO 220 — map & image data — nearby photos
Tea Room Next Door
also deserted

Wider View -- Michinoku Hot Springs (みちのく温泉) -- Nishitsugaru, Aomori, Japan -- Copyright 2014 Jeffrey Friedl, https://regex.info/blog/ -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (non-commercial use is freely allowed if proper attribution is given, including a link back to this page on http://regex.info/ when used online)

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — ¹/250 sec, f/9, ISO 160 — map & image data — nearby photos
Wider View

I have no idea what the large concrete stairway structure is at left. I also had no idea at the time where the water came to drive the wheel, but the base seemed improbably dry to be driven by a stream.

I eventually found a video showing the wheel in action, but it was a disappointment because it seems that water is pumped up a pipe to the top of the thing, then poured over it, which means they use more energy to drive the wheel than they can get out of the wheel, so it's all fake. I'd sort of hoped it was some real vestige of years past.

Oh well.

In my search I also found that there were multiple places claiming “Japan's largest waterwheel”. I hadn't realized that there was competition for the distinction.

Anyway, at least the cherry blossoms were nice.

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 29mm — ¹/3200 sec, f/2.8, ISO 160 — map & image data — nearby photos

Late-April Blossoms several weeks later than Kyoto -- Michinoku Hot Springs (みちのく温泉) -- Nishitsugaru, Aomori, Japan -- Copyright 2014 Jeffrey Friedl, https://regex.info/blog/ -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (non-commercial use is freely allowed if proper attribution is given, including a link back to this page on http://regex.info/ when used online)

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/500 sec, f/11, ISO 3600 — map & image data — nearby photos
Late-April Blossoms
several weeks later than Kyoto

March	12th,	2008	Homemade Kinako: Soybeans, a Mortar, Pestle, and a Five Year Old
May	2nd,	2014	Dark, Brooding Camellia
June	27th,	2014	A Few More Off-Season Spring Blossoms

You can submit a comment below | Posted under: Cherry Blossoms, Desktop Backgrounds, General, Japan, Pretty Photos | Comments via RSS | Trackback

All 2 comments so far, oldest first...

Love your camellia macro photographs!

This is another article on Japanese camellia. Sorry, it is not on camellia but on Japan’s biggest waterwheel!! The first photograph of the waterwheel is stunning. The sun light creates a mystical image, very powerful indeed. It is a waterwheel, and yet it is beautifully well taken. This is a really good article, Jeffrey. Well done!

— comment by Akiko :D on May 7th, 2014 at 11:00pm JST (10 years, 7 months ago) — comment permalink

Hello from Germany

I passed the Wheel recently on a Holiday trip on our way from Oma to Akita. The place is abandoned now and partly grown over. Being a geologist and mining history enthusiast, I initially thought it might be a pumping wheel for a nearby ore mine.

However it rather appears to be a replica of a historic japanese water mill built on a site, where there really is no adequate water supply to drive it…

No idea what the adjoining concrete structure with the smaller wheel is though…

Kind Regards & Glück Auf

Thomas

— comment by Thomas on September 22nd, 2018 at 5:31pm JST (6 years, 3 months ago) — comment permalink