October/3/2020
Located in the central city of Fukui, Tsukumo Bridge spans the Asuwa River. I wrote about the Asuwa River once before.(The Asuwa River: a river that runs through the central part of Fukui)
In my opinion, there are four interesting points about Tsukumo Bridge(九十九橋 in Japanese).
- It has a more than 400-year history.
- Half of the bridge was made of wood, and the other half was made of stone, so it was well known in Japan.
- Katsushika Hokusai, a world-famous ukiyoe painter, painted it.
- There’s a touching legend about the bridge. (The story of hitobashira(human pillar).)
Tsukumo Bridge was built about 400 years ago by Shibata Katsuie, a military commander who laid the foundations of the city of Fukui. The bridge was a very important entrance to this castle town. The stone used to build the bridge was the Shakudani type, which is a Fukui specialty.