Recorded Joy·Rakusai / Arashiyama

Togetsukyo Bridge

By tradition the bridge owes its name to Emperor Kameyama, who in the mid-Kamakura period likened the moon passing over the water to "a moon moving across a flawless sky." Earlier it is said to have been called the Hōrin-ji Bridge. The present bridge, with its wooden railings, was completed in 1934 as a steel-reinforced concrete girder span that carries on the older design in wood. The weir just upstream, the Kadono-no-Ōi, is said to have been raised in the late 5th century by the immigrant Hata clan, who dammed the Katsura River—the source, by tradition, of its older name, the Ōi-gawa.

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These notes come from desk research. Local traditions vary.