Minaga Stone Gate

A Stone Aqueduct-Footbridge in Higashihiroshima

The Minaga Stone Gate (三永の石門) is a stone arch aqueduct and footbridge completed around 1882 in Kami-Minaga, Saijo-cho, Higashihiroshima City, Hiroshima Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on September 2, 1998. The Agency for Cultural Affairs reads the name Minaga no Ishimon, while Hiroshima Prefecture and the agriculture ministry read it Minaga no Sekimon. It was built to carry a farm irrigation channel cut by the old National Route 2 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency for Cultural Affairs records it as a stone arch bridge 11.7 metres wide and 9.6 metres long, with an arch span of 3.7 metres; registration number 34-0017, owned by the national government (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism). The agriculture ministry says Higashihiroshima City manages it.

The Sanyodo Realignment and the Irrigation Channel

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, a realignment of the Sanyodo highway was planned in 1876, and because the cutting would sever an irrigation channel on its route, an arched bridge was built to carry the water over the road. The Minaga Stone Gate was completed around 1882.

When National Route 2 was widened from 1976 it was to be removed and was dismantled, but strong calls for its preservation led to its re-erection here as a monument (Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries). The Agency for Cultural Affairs says it was moved nearby and preserved in 1978.

Why It Was Registered

The Minaga Stone Gate was registered as a structure that would be difficult to reproduce. The Agency for Cultural Affairs points to its unusual construction, with the dressed-stone arch wrapped in thin stone slabs.

What to Look For

The Minaga Stone Gate is a stone arch bridge 11.7 metres wide and 9.6 metres long, with an arch span of 3.7 metres (Agency for Cultural Affairs); look for the dressed-stone arch wrapped in thin slabs.

Hiroshima Prefecture notes that the restored arch, a footbridge and aqueduct in one, keeps the channel along its top that carried the water. You can see how water ran over the bridge while people passed beneath.

Visiting the Minaga Stone Gate

According to Hiroshima Prefecture, take the Geiyo bus bound for Takehara from JR Saijo Station to the Sekimon stop, right by the gate; by car it is about 1 kilometre from the Kami-Minaga interchange on the Higashihiroshima-Kure road. The address is 710-1 Kami-Minaga, Saijo-cho, Higashihiroshima City, and the monument can be seen outdoors (Hiroshima Prefecture, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries).