Iwakuni Kintai Bridge, one of the three most famous bridges in Japan

#日本景点 Kintai Bridge is a wooden arch bridge across the Nishiki River in Iwakuni City, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. It is also a well-known local tourist attraction. It is listed as one of the three most famous bridges in Japan along with Nihonbashi Bridge in Chuo Ward, Tokyo and Spectacle Bridge in Nagasaki City, Nagasaki Prefecture. The entire bridge consists of five arches, with a total length of 193.3 meters and a width of 5.0 meters. Except for the piers which are made of stone, the bridge body is made entirely of wood. The current Kintai Bridge was rebuilt in 1953. Since 1639, Iwakuni Domain has built bridges here many times, but they have been destroyed many times when the Nishiki River flooded. In order to prevent the bridge from being washed away again, Yoshikawa Hiroyoshi, the later lord of Iwakuni, sent craftsmen to various places for investigation. Finally, he decided to refer to the bridge-building method of West Lake in Hangzhou, China at that time. He used multiple islands to connect multiple arch bridges to cross the 200-meter-wide Jinchuan River. However, there were no small islands available on the Jinchuan River like in the West Lake, so large stones were piled up as connecting piers to increase the ability to resist floods. This bridge consisting of five consecutive arches was finally completed in 1673, but it was destroyed by floods after only about half a year of use. After the piers were improved and strengthened, the bridge was rebuilt in 1675. The completed bridge successfully lasted for the next 276 years until it was destroyed by floods brought by Typhoon Kesia in 1950. The first completed bridge was called "Ohashi" at the time, and was recorded as "Iwakuni Ohashi" in the documents provided by Iwakuni Domain to the Ego Shogunate. In addition, it has also used several names such as "Lingyun Bridge", "Goryu Bridge", "Daiyun Bridge", and "Abacus Bridge". The name "Kintai Bridge" first appeared in 1706, when Utsunomiya Dunan, a Confucian scholar from Iwakuni, first called the bridge "Kintai Bridge", but it did not become an official name at the time. It was not until 1772 to 1780 that the official Iwakuni Domain decided to use "Kintai Bridge" as the official name. The 176th scene in the Japanese TV program "One Hundred Precious Scenic Spots" is right next to the west end of the Kintai Bridge, but it is not a scenic spot or a historical building, but an ice cream shop (Figure 6). It is the holder of the record for the most types of ice cream in Japan, with a total of 165 types, but normally 100 types of ice cream are sold every day. There are also several ice cream shops nearby that are highly rated in Japan. You can try them if you like. Maple leaves are almost everywhere in Japan, and there is one next to the east bank of the bridge. Unfortunately, it was cloudy that day and the photos didn’t look that beautiful. The weather always has the greatest impact on visual effects. #Overseas Travel #Japan Travel #Japan Good Places #Japan Travel #Japan Photography #Bridge #Arch Bridge #River #Sankou County #Iwakuni #Ice Cream Lover #Ice Cream