Tsūjun Bridge
Interesting facts
- Water drops about 7.5 metres into the pipes on the upstream side and climbs about 5.8 metres on the far side, a net fall of only 1.7 metres.
- The aqueduct carries water in three parallel stone pipes along a conduit about 127 metres long, their joints sealed with a special lime plaster.
- The masonry uses the same sturdy walling techniques as the stone ramparts of Kumamoto Castle, with an outer sheath wall added to resist earthquakes.
- Some 41 skilled stonemasons worked on the bridge, alongside large numbers of local farmers.
- Futa Yasunosuke, who led the project as head of Yabe village, lived from 1801 to 1873.
- The bridge was listed as an Important Cultural Property in February 1960, more than six decades before its elevation to National Treasure.
- The 2016 Kumamoto earthquake cracked the bridge, displaced stones and broke pipe joints; repairs, set back by a wall collapse in heavy rain in 2018, were completed in 2020.
- The famous discharges are scheduled mostly in the farmers' off-season, when releasing water does not deprive the paddy fields.
- Below the bridge, the gorge holds a waterfall of about 50 metres.
Why it is worth it
A stone arch spans a wooded gorge in central Kyushu, and every so often jets of water burst from its sides and fall in white plumes into the river below. Tsūjun Bridge is not a road bridge but an aqueduct, built in 1854 to carry water across the valley to the Shiraito Plateau in what is now the town of Yamato, Kumamoto Prefecture. The plateau, formed of volcanic ash from Mount Aso, swallowed rainwater so quickly that its farmers had almost no water for rice. In 2023 the bridge became the first civil-engineering structure in Japan to be designated a National Treasure.
The project was led by Futa Yasunosuke, the head of the local district, who raised funds and brought in the Taneyama masons, a renowned guild of stonemasons from southern Kumamoto, working alongside local farmers. Construction began in December 1852 and was finished in August 1854. Carpenters first built an arched wooden frame, the masons laid the stones over it, and three stone pipes were set along the top before the frame was removed. Local tradition holds that at the moment the supports were taken away, Futa sat in the middle of the bridge dressed in white, ready to die if it failed. The single arch spans about 28 metres; the structure is roughly 78 metres long and more than 20 metres high, the largest stone aqueduct in Japan, and its arch the largest of any Edo-period stone bridge in the country.
The engineering is as clever as the setting. The stone pipes on the bridge sit lower than the channels on either side, so water drops into them and is pushed up again on the far side by an inverted siphon. Silt tends to settle in the low section, and outlets in the middle of the bridge allow it to be flushed out, which produces the famous discharge. The aqueduct opened around 100 hectares of new paddy fields, and the canal system and the terraced rice landscape of the Shiraito Plateau are protected together as an Important Cultural Landscape.
Getting there
Tsūjun Bridge is in the town of Yamato, Kamimashiki District, Kumamoto Prefecture, about 30 km south-east of central Kumamoto. The nearest town listed is Mifune, about 17 km away, and Kumamoto Airport (KMJ) is about 22 km away.
Plan your visit
We have no confirmed visit data yet. Once it is confirmed, this block also carries the date it was checked.
Nearby places
- Mount Aso 24.8 km · volcano
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
Tsūjun Bridge is an aqueduct in Yamato, Kumamoto, Japan. It is an arch bridge completed in 1854 and is 84.0m long. The arch spans 27.3m. It is the largest stone aqueduct in Japan.
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