A boy points to the Moon Bridge over the Koishikawa Korakuen Garden

Moon Bridge in Koishikawa Korakuen Garden

Koishikawa Korakuen Garden, located in Koraku, Tokyo, was originally the upper residence of the Mito Tokugawa family. Tokugawa Yorifusa, the first feudal lord of the Mito domain, ordered the construction of the existing garden, which was then renovated and completed by Mitsukuni, the second feudal lord.

The name Tokugawa Mitsukuni may be unfamiliar to some. However, most people will be familiar with Mito Komon. The popular hero of historical dramas, Komon is based on the second lord of the Mito clan. In other words, it was Mito Komon who completed the Koishikawa Korakuen Garden.

For this reason, there are still some structures in Koishikawa Korakuen that were built in Mitsukuni's time. The Engetsu Bridge in the photo is one of them. It is said to have been designed by Zhu Zhiyu, a Confucian scholar from the Ming Dynasty and Mitsukuni's mentor, and was so named because the shape of the bridge and its reflection on the water surface resembles a full moon.

If we read only the episode "the shape of the bridge and its reflection on the water surface makes a full moon", we might think that the bridge girders are curved to look like a full moon. However, there was also a practical reason for such a bridge, called the Moon Bridge. The shape was originally invented in China so that pedestrians could pass over it while ships were in operation. Indeed, many of the bridges in Suzhou, where there are many waterways still in use, have large curved girders like the Moon Bridge.

Comment via

日本語