Japanese Bridge
Interesting facts
- According to legend, the bridge's little temple pins down the earthquake monster Namazu, which is why the monkey and dog, its folkloric masters, guard the ends.
- Japanese merchants reportedly began the bridge in 1593 and finished it in 1595, while the temple on its north side is dated to 1653.
- The central section rests on five spans over brick pillars standing in the water, while each brick-built bridgehead has two spans of its own.
- The ends of the roof tiles are capped with porcelain bowls, a decorative detail that sets the bridge apart from ordinary tiled roofs in the old town.
- Each year, on the 20th day of the seventh lunar month, a festival is held in honour of Trấn Vũ, the deity worshipped in the bridge temple.
- The restoration of 2022–2024 cost more than 20 billion Vietnamese dong, lasted 19 months, and drew on advice from Japanese conservation specialists.
- Vietnamese speakers call it Chùa Cầu, literally the Temple Bridge, because a shrine projects from the middle of its north side over the water.
- In 2015 Hội An gave the city of Thanh Hóa a 10-metre replica of the bridge to mark 55 years of their twinning.
- Before the latest restoration, the structure was gradually sinking and tilting because the polluted channel beneath it was eroding the ground under its piers.
Why it is worth it
A short curved bridge with a tiled roof and a tiny temple halfway across, the Japanese Bridge is the emblem of Hội An, the old trading port once known to foreigners as Faifo. Tradition holds that Japanese merchants living in the port built it in the 1590s to cross a small stream flowing into the Thu Bồn River, linking their quarter with the Chinese one, and that the temple was added in the seventeenth century. Local legend gives the shrine a purpose: it was set like a sword into the back of Namazu, the giant catfish whose thrashing was believed to cause earthquakes.
The bridge is about 18 metres long and 3 wide, carried on brick piers, with a timber frame beneath three linked roofs covered in yin-yang tiles. Look for the carved wooden animals guarding the two ends, a dog at one and a monkey at the other, figures linked in Japanese folklore to the subduing of Namazu; for the lacquered red woodwork; and for the board over the temple door bearing three Chinese characters, Lai Viễn Kiều, "bridge for guests from afar", the name given by Lord Nguyễn Phúc Chu when he visited in 1719. Despite its name, the little temple holds no Buddha but a statue of Trấn Vũ, a guardian deity.
Repeated rebuilding, recorded in 1817, 1865, 1915 and 1986, gradually replaced much of the original Japanese character with Vietnamese and Chinese elements. The most thorough restoration began at the end of 2022, with the structure dismantled and its foundations strengthened; it was unveiled in August 2024, and its fresh paint drew debate over how new a four-century-old bridge should look. The bridge has been a national historic and cultural monument since 1990 and appears on the Vietnamese 20,000-dong banknote. At night the bridge is lit up above the dark water.
Getting there
The bridge stands in the heart of Hội An's old town, between Trần Phú and Nguyễn Thị Minh Khai streets, about 1 km from the town centre. Da Nang International Airport (DAD) is about 23 km away.
Plan your visit
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Nearby places
- Dragon River Bridge 23.0 km · bridge
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From the encyclopaedia
The Japanese Bridge is a footbridge with a temple atop, located in Hội An, Da Nang, Vietnam. It dates from the late 16th century by Japanese merchantmen but successive renovations and repairs on the bridge have occurred throughout the period to the modern day.
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