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Nikko NP, Tochigi
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In Nikko’s founding legend, the monk Shōdō prayed when the Daiya River blocked his way. The guardian deity Jinjaō sent 2 snakes across the water, and mountain sedge grew along their backs to make a bridge. This is folklore, not a record of the bridge’s construction.
After its 1636 rebuilding, Shinkyo was reserved for shrine rites, shoguns, and imperial envoys. Ordinary travelers crossed on a separate bridge downstream; public access to Shinkyo opened in 1972, 336 years later.
Before the 1630s, Shinkyo was a pierless “hanebashi,” built by cantilevering beams out from the riverbanks. During the rebuilding for Toshogu Shrine, stone supports were added, creating a hybrid structure close to the bridge’s form today.
The Daiya River’s 1902 flood carried Shinkyo away. It was rebuilt in 1904, faithfully restoring its earlier form—a striking example of how the bridge’s design survived even when the bridge itself did not.
A traditional carpenter’s rule for Shinkyo’s curve was remembered as “100 and 6”: mark a rise of 6 at the midpoint of a 100-unit span, then draw through the 3 points. Later measurements found the arch’s radius was about 58.8 meters.
Shinkyo was already famous in the Muromachi period, when travelers recorded it as Yamasuge Bridge. In a 1486 travel diary, monk Dōkō described the bridge as having a mysterious story.
During a major conservation project, restorers found that Shinkyo’s 9 main beams included 2 installed in 1906 and 7 from 1956. Rather than replace them all, they repaired decayed areas with carefully fitted wood.
