Kazura bridge at the Iya Valley
Interesting facts
- Several tons of hardy kiwi vine, gathered in the surrounding mountains, go into the making of the bridge.
- Some 350,000 people cross it every year, which is why it wears out quickly and must be completely rewoven so often.
- The vines used for the rebuilding come from neighbouring Kochi Prefecture, across the mountains on Shikoku.
- Its fame across Japan dates from 1970, when it featured in the national railways' celebrated Discover Japan travel campaign.
- Of perhaps 13 vine bridges once recorded in the Iya Valley, only three survive today.
- A traditional work song of the valley, the Iya flour-grinding song, is known for capturing the bridge's sway and loose plank deck.
- In 1989 craftsmen from Higashi-Iya helped build a 44-metre copy in Ikeda, Fukui Prefecture, as a way to revive a depopulating town.
Why it is worth it
In the deep, forested Iya Valley on the Japanese island of Shikoku, a footbridge of woven vines sways some 14 metres above the Iya River. The Kazurabashi at Zentoku in Nishi-Iya is 45 metres long and about 2 metres wide; its deck is a loose lattice of split logs and planks with gaps wide enough to see the water below, and its sides are thick ropes of twisted hardy kiwi vine. Anyone crossing feels it move with every step. It is counted among the three "strange bridges" of Japan and is designated an Important Tangible Folk Cultural Property.
No one knows when the first vine bridges were made here. A provincial map of Awa from 1646 already shows seven of them in Iya, and a travel account of 1657 lists thirteen. Local tradition offers two origins: one credits the monk Kลซkai with building a bridge for villagers who could not cross the river; the other holds that warriors of the Taira clan, hiding in these mountains after their defeat in the Genpei War of the 1180s, used vines so that the bridges could be cut down at once if pursuers came. Neither story can be proved, but the valley's remoteness made it a refuge for centuries.
The bridge at Zentoku was replaced by a wire suspension bridge in the Taishล era, then rebuilt in vine in 1928 to bring visitors to the area. Steel cables now run inside the vines for safety, so the vines act partly as a wrapping. Because of heavy use, the whole bridge is re-woven every three years, a job that takes about a month. Two more vine bridges survive farther up the valley in Higashi-Iya, at Sugeoi near Mount Tsurugi: the Oku-Iya Double Vine Bridges, a "male" bridge of 42 metres and a "female" one of 20 metres hanging side by side. The valley around them is known for steep slopes, thatched farmhouses and the narrow old road along the Iya Gorge, built between 1902 and 1920.
Getting there
The bridge is in the former village of Nishi-Iyayama, now part of Miyoshi City in Tokushima Prefecture, about 17 km from Ikeda, the main town of the area. The nearest railway station is ลboke on the JR Dosan Line, roughly 20 minutes away by car, with local buses running to the bridge. The nearest airport is Kochi Ryoma Airport (KCZ), about 40 km away in a straight line across the mountains of central Shikoku.
On these lists
33.87528, 133.83528per Wikidata