Kintai Bridge

The Kintai Bridge (錦帯橋 Kintai-kyō) is a historical wooden arch bridge, in the city of Iwakuni, in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan.

The bridge was built in 1673, spanning the beautiful Nishiki River in a series of five wooden arches, and the bridge is located on the foot of Mt.Yokoyama, at the top of which lies Iwakuni Castle.

Declared a National Treasure in 1922, Kikkou Park, which includes the bridge and castle, is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Japan, especially for the Cherry Blossom festival in the spring and the autumn color change of the Japanese Maples.

History

After Iwakuni Castle was built in 1601 by Kikkawa Hiroie, the first lord of Iwakuni Domain, a series of wooden bridges were built, all of which were destroyed by floods several times before the construction of the iconic Kintai Bridge. It was built in 1673 by the third lord, Kikkawa Hiroyoshi, new stone piers replaced the old wooden ones and it was thought to be flood-proof; however, the bridge was still destroyed by a flood the next year. As a result, they redesigned the stone piers for greater strength, and a special tax was created to maintain the bridge. This maintenance consisted of being rebuilt periodically: every 20 years for 3 spans in the middle, every 40 years for 2 spans connecting to the riverside. In this way, the bridge was not destroyed by floods again until 1950 by flooding from typhoon "Kezia." It had been in a weakened state at the time, both because the Japanese had stopped maintaining the bridge during World War II and the year before the typhoon, to expand the US Marine Corps Air Station in Iwakuni, a large amount of gravel was taken by the US Military Force from the river around the bridge, strengthening the flow of the river. In 1953, the bridge was once again reconstructed using very similar techniques to the original; however, they used metal nails (made from the same tatara iron as the Katana) to increase its durability. This 1953 reconstruction, partially restored in 2001 and 2004, still stands today.

Architecture

The bridge is composed by five sequential wooden arch bridges on four stone built piers as well as two of wooden piers on the dry riverbed where the bridge begins and ends. Each of the three middle spans is 35.1 meters long, while the two end spans are 34.8 meters for a total length of about 175 meters with a width of 5 meters.

Original Construction

For nearly three hundred years the many versions of the bridge stood without the use of metal nails. They achieved this by careful fitting of the wooden parts and buy building up thick girders by clamping and binding them together with metal belts. The main wooden parts of the bridge would then be covered by sheets of copper.

Flood protection

The shape and weight of the bridge made it extremely strong from the top, but incredibly weak from underneath, flood water rushing along the river would simply lift the bridge up and wash it downstream. So the bridge was designed so that the wooden pathway merely "floats" on top of the frame of the bridge by using mortise and tenon joints. This would allow rising flood waters to simply lift out the pathway and carry it off down stream while sparing the main structure.

Access

  • Iwakuni Station on Sanyo Main Line
  • Nishi-Iwakuni Station or Kawanishi Station on Gantoku Line
  • Shin-Iwakuni Station on Sanyō Shinkansen
    • From these stations, it is still necessary to take a bus or taxi.

See also

  • Iwakuni Castle - the bridge was placed as one of the gates of the castle
  • Nishiki River - the bridge is across the river

References

External links

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Kahori Nishimura
19 February 2014
Good style bridge (a little hard to walk through lol)
Nao
28 May 2017
日本三大奇橋のひとつ。岩国藩の初代藩主・吉川広家は1608年 (慶長13年) に錦川に囲まれた横山山頂に岩国城を築城。第3代藩主・吉川広嘉は、暴れ川である錦川に橋を架けることを実行。中国西湖の島づたいに架かる石橋をヒントに連続アーチ橋を構想し、1673年 (延宝元年)錦帯橋が完成。276年間持ち堪えるも1950年の台風による大増水で流失。1953年に再建、経時劣化に伴い2004年に再び再建した。
Massara Nati …
17 August 2015
【国指定名勝】中央3連がアーチ橋、両端が桁橋の5連の橋と非常に珍しい構造です。橋自体は何度か架け替えられていますが橋脚の石垣や河床の石材は創建当時のものが使われているようです(石垣の内部はコンクリートですが・・・)
inu monster
29 September 2014
The restaurant in front of Kintaikyo bridge name ひらせい (Hirasei) is very expensive. A small grilled fish with a small bowl of rice costs ¥1980.
アオヤマ くん
22 March 2017
錦帯橋を渡った先に特に何があるわけではありませんので、美味しい料理や写真映えする特徴的なものを期待する方は桜の季節か夜に訪れることをオススメします。
Yuuuuuu F
30 April 2016
夜に来たらとっても綺麗!河原の駐車場は無料です!一眼があればとても美しい写真ができると思う。一応橋の通行料が要るらしいが、夜は誰も払っている様子がないし、無人の徴収箱も真っ暗で取る気なさそう
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Noriaki Gotoh, Kanda Supawasin and 35,048 more people have been here
Map
0.1km from 2 Chome-2-23 Yokoyama, Iwakuni-shi, Yamaguchi-ken 741-0081, Japan Get directions
Sat 9:00 AM–8:00 PM
Sun 9:00 AM–7:00 PM
Mon 9:00 AM–5:00 PM
Tue-Thu 10:00 AM–5:00 PM

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