Photos

Iwakuni lies 40km down the coast of Hiroshima Bay from Hiroshima. It is an old castle town, with samurai quarters and one of Japan's most famous traditional bridges. It is also one of the two US Marines bases on the Japanese mainland.

The Kintai-kyo, or "Brocade Sash Bridge" in English, is what everybody comes to see in Iwakuni. The 210m (688 feet) long bridge was originally built in 1673 under daimyo Kikkawa Hiroyoshi, without using a single nail! It was swept away by floods caused by Typhoon Kezia in 1950, and was almost identically reconstructed in 1953.

Kintai-kyo's particularity is its five steep arches, typical of Edo era bridges. In old times, only samurai were allowed to use the bridge, leaving other people to cross the river by boat. Now everyone can use it for a 300 yen charge to cross the bridge (return). You will, indeed, need to walk across in both directions. It doesn't really go anywhere that you need to travel to.

This picture is chosen to show the detail construction of the wooden pedestrian bridge from below. The shape of the tapering arc is also very beautiful. I will post a workshop showing the full reach of the bridge, just to satisfy your lurking curiosity.

The image hs been resized, lightened and sharpened for TE.