I did not expect it, but this is still a matter of importance nowadays. The Manual De-icing Waterways from the Dutch public works institute (2010) tells the history of ice breaking in the Netherlands. It starts with a steamboat with ice breaker active as early as 1861. In the 1960's the government experimented with breaking ice by explosives. Bombs or rockets were found to be ineffective as the loosened ice would easily compact and form new ice walls. Given the current importance of transportation by ship (>30% of all goods transported in the Netherlands), rivers and canals are often kept open and there is no formation of such a high ice wall as in 1789.
In Japan however, while the river geomorphology in Hokkaido should lead to ice break-ups and river jams, due to heavy snow cover this rarely happens. In combination with the low reliance on river transportation, there is no special governmental procedure to break the ice. As observed in the paper
'Aspects of river ice hydrology in Japan' (2002):
"Rivers in northern Japan are subjected to ice formation each winter. They are typically very steep with rapid changes in channel slope. As a result, ice covers are usually discontinuous with open water sections. Winter discharges in Japanese rivers are usually very small. Water temperature and ice production in these streams are very sensitive to the change in air temperature. The open water sections enable the formation of frazil and anchor ice during the winter. Owing to the relatively stable winter weather and heavy snow cover, premature break-up and ice jams rarely occur, even though the channel geometry of these rivers is favourable for their occurrence. In this paper, hydrometeorological factors related to ice-cover formation, frazil and anchor-ice development, and ice-jam formation, as well as measurements of the undercover discharge in rivers in northern Japan are discussed."
What we do find are beautiful river shaped fractures in the lakes in Hokkaido:
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