Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan's Bridges: 6: Tamaebashi in Ishibashi Park

(31.6050 Degrees, 130.5709 Degrees) Tamaebashi

The Tamaebashi Bridge, which was originally farthest upstream but is now closest to the sea, retains its original appearance best of the three stone bridges damaged by flooding in 1993 and moved to the Ishibashi Park in 2000. The cutwaters are smaller than on the Koraibashi Bridge (which were up to the deck) but are larger than on the Nishidabashi Bridge. The Tamaebashi Bridge has the least decorative stone barrier rail.  A poster by the bridge shows the steps taken in its reconstruction.

Wooden planks were laid on the ground to support the arches. Then stone skewbacks were placed on the planks, timber formwork was constructed to support the arches, and spandrel walls were built along the sides of the arches. Cutwaters were then erected, soil was placed on top of the arches between the spandrel walls, and then the stone deck was laid on the compacted soil. Finally, the stone rails were built.

The completed deck can be seen in the photo above. Note how the deck on each of these bridges is on a steep vertical curve. Handsome conifers were planted at one end of each bridge. Also, we can see Sakurajima erupting in the distance.

The photo above shows how the Koraibashi Bridge looked at its original location across the Kotsukigawa. It looks almost identical to its appearance at Ishibashi Koen. It's interesting how plants can grow from the soil placed inside these spandrel arches.

Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan's Bridges: 6: Tamaebashi in Ishibashi Park by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.