|
This page:
|
|
 Yoshino Bridge in Winter
|
|
The Sawai River flows into the Sagami River at the western edge of the district called Yoshino, Fujino's old post town on the Kôshû Kaidô. Three bridges have spanned the Sawai River during Fujino's history. The two earlier bridges were known as the Kozarubashi or the "Little Monkey-Bridge." This name was selected because its shape closely resembled the large Sarubashi (Monkey Bridge) located in Yamanashi. But while the bridge was meant to ease travel, getting to the bridge itself was a problem; it was located down near the river on the far side of the Yoshino Bridge shown here. Travelers had to climb down deep into the gorge to cross the bridge, then climb back up again. During the last years of the Edo period, dwindling official finances made it harder to repair the Kozaru Bridge using public funds. As a result, several of the inns in the Yoshino post town requested that they be allowed to keep meshimori onna, quasi-legal prostitutes, so that they could attract more customers and thus pay for bridge maintenance out of the profits. The bridge was kept in repair thanks to those unfortunate women. A new Kozaru Bridge was built in the Meiji period, somewhere near where I was standing when I took this photograph. That bridge required a detour from the main road, though it lasted for about fifty years, until the Yoshino Bridge shown here was built in 1933.
To return to your previous location, use your browser's "BACK" button, or click your heels together three times while saying, "there's no place like home" . . .
|
Green Gables: A Contemplative Companion to Fujino Townshipby Norman Havens nhavens@gol.com
Updated: April 20, 2002
URL: http://www2.gol.com/users/nhavens/
