The Memorial Monument and Cenotaph were built to mourn for the people who died in accidents or of disease during the construction of the canal. Sakuro Tanabe built a monument to the loyal dead at his own expense in 1902. The names of 17 people who died during construction are engraved on the back of the monument. The cenotaph was built in 1941 by the Electricity Bureau of Kyoto City, which was responsible for the Lake Biwa Canal.