KYOTO, Japan >> The popular Kamo River runs more than 14 miles from north to south in the middle of urban Kyoto. One of the ways the community enjoys the river is by crossing it on steppingstones placed for that purpose.

There are in total six sets of steppingstones on the Kamo River. Many of those were crafted in shapes of turtles, boats and omusubi rice balls, and they have become part of the city’s unique landscape.

There is a constant flow of people crossing the river on the stone pathways, even though a bridge is nearby — students in a hurry, people walking their dogs, elderly people taking a stroll.

“It’s nice to walk over the river, isn’t it? Besides, it’s the shortest route to my office,” said a man in his 40s.

The steppingstones seem to have become an indispensable pathway for the community.

The stones were installed in the early 1990s, when Kyoto’s government decided on the pathways as a means of familiarizing the community with the river. At the time, so few people were comfortable with the water that school handbooks said, “Do not approach the river. It is dangerous.”

“We thought that we could prevent accidents on the river by making people aware of its characteristics,” recalled Shigenori Yo­- sh­imi, a former employee of the prefecture’s civil engineering office.

Now, the Kamo River is often crowded with children playing in the water during summer holidays.

Yoshimi, 65, hopes that parents and children will use the stones as a guide to judge the water level and say, “Today the turtle is up to its neck in water, so we should be careful.”

Besides serving as a pathway, the steppingstones have another, unexpected benefit: They hold back gravel that would have been swept up by the rapids, preventing the riverbed from being gouged. As a result, the flow of the river is stable and the water is placid.

“If we artificially flatten the riverbed, some fish will no longer be able to live there. By placing steppingstones, a balance is achieved between the environment and the need for flood control,” Yoshimi said.

Around 1100, the powerful retired emperor Shirakawa listed the water of the Kamo River as one of the three things he could not control. The other two were a roll of the dice and the monks of the Hieizan Enryakuji temple, which had strong influence and wealth.

Shirakawa’s musings indicate that the Kamo River had once been a raging river.

Centuries later, around 1800, the famous novelist Takizawa Bakin listed the Kamo River as one of the three best things about Kyoto, along with “girls” and “temples and shrines.”

The Kamo River has long attracted the hearts and minds of Japanese people because of its duality — roughness and beauty.

There are various theories about the origin of the river’s name. The meaning of one kanji character for “kamo” is wild duck, but the most popular belief is that its name comes from the Kamo clan, a powerful family who had lived along the river for generations.

In fact, the Kamo River uses different kanji to the north and south of its confluence with the Takano River. South of that point, the kanji for “wild duck” is used; north of it, the kanji for the Kamo clan.

But some don’t pay attention to the kanji. They believe that “kamo” originated from the word “kami,” meaning upstream or deity.