A Study on the Dry Docks built up in the Meiji period in Japan

Abstract

The first dry dock in Japan is No.I Dock of Yokosuka Dock Yard and was built up in 1871 by French civil engineers. After that more than thirty dry docks had been built in Japan until the end of Meiji period. Now one of them is designated as a cultural asset, and another one is registered as a cultural asset by Japanese Government. So we need systematize a history and building technology of them. For that purpose, this paper tries to understand over the general state of them by following three steps. Firstly it makes a list of dry docks built up in the Meiji period, secondly we collect each material of them, thirdly, we visit to see existent dry docks.This paper indicates the characteistics of all the dry docks built in Meiji period from the folowing three view points:1) original technology for building dry docks was introduced by French engineers, 2) most of them were built of stone, 3) some of them are located in specified area, Kanagawa, Nagasaki, and the Inlands Sea.