Hideo Takayama first became conscious of the term ¡°ankyo¡± back in 2000 when he bought a house in Ikenoue, a residential neighborhood in Tokyo¡¯s western Setagaya Ward. His realtor had pointed out, rather apologetically, that there was one running right beside the property.
¡°I wasn¡¯t quite sure what he was referring to then. He said there used to be a river there,¡± Takayama says.
He came to notice, though, that on days of heavy rain the sound of roaring water gushing through an underground channel echoed from a nearby manhole. It turned out he was indeed living next to what was once a tributary of the Kitazawa River, now paved over in concrete. This was an ankyo, the remnant of an old waterway buried underground.
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