Here at grape Japan, we have run several stories about how game and anime production companies have teamed up with local authorities to create wonderfully colourful manhole covers.

But creators in the fields of manga, anime and video games were not the first to come up with the idea of turning the humble manhole cover into something more eye-catching. Japanese artists have been decorating manhole covers up and down the country for some time. Here is a selection of some of my favourites.

This is probably the most common design you'll see on manhole covers in Tokyo. Its beauty belies its function: it gives access to the sewers that run under the city.

This manhole cover carries the ideogram for electricity - 電den. It is plain and functional, yet stylish.

This fire hydrant cover has an eye-catching fire engine emblem.

This fire hydrant carries an image of the matoi 纏 or flag/standard that firefighters in the Edo era used to carry to signal the presence of a fire to surrounding fire brigades. It was a race of sorts to put up the matoi, as whichever brigade saved a property would receive a reward.

The watery theme continues with this manhole cover, which is decorated with the image of a whale.

This manhole cover shows Hokusai's Masculine Wave (男浪 onami). It's in the town of Obuse 小布施 in Nagano prefecture, where there is a museum dedicated to the great ukiyo-e artist.

Of course, not all manhole covers cover shafts leading down to sewage or water pipes. All kinds of public utilities use underground pipes and cables. This manhole cover gives access to electrical cables for a railway company. It celebrates the golden age of steam trains.

Manhole covers are needed in the countryside no less than in the city. This manhole cover in rural Nagano celebrates the prefecture's nature.

What these manhole covers have in common is a desire on the part of utility providers and local authorities to beautify Japan's streetscapes. It goes to show that just because something is functional, quotidian and overlooked, it doesn't have to be ugly, uninspired or visually unappealing.