Momoshima Bridge

A Cultural Property Born from Disaster

To understand Momoshima Bridge, you have to understand what happened to Kinosaki on May 23, 1925. The North Tajima Earthquake (北但大震災, Hokutan Daishinsai) struck the region with devastating force, and fires that broke out in its wake reduced almost the entire onsen town to ashes. The destruction was so complete that contemporary newspapers described Kinosaki as a "scorched plain."

Rather than rebuild piecemeal, the town's mayor at the time, Nishimura Sahei, set in motion a comprehensive reconstruction plan that treated Kinosaki as a single integrated townscape. The Otani River, which floods regularly during heavy rain, was reinforced with stone embankments built from local basalt — pushing the riverbanks up by 70 to 80 centimeters above the road. The new bridges therefore had to rise to meet them, and that practical constraint led to the elegant bow shape that defines Momoshima Bridge and its three sisters today.

Why Momoshima Bridge Was Designated

On November 17, 2015, the Agency for Cultural Affairs registered Momoshima Bridge as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (登録有形文化財), part of a wider recognition of the historic structures that give Kinosaki Onsen its distinctive atmosphere. The designation recognizes more than just age — it celebrates the bridge's role in shaping a beloved cultural landscape.

Three qualities stand out. First, the bridge is a tangible witness to the 1925 disaster and the resilient reconstruction that followed. Second, its bow-shaped profile — paired with the lanterns and small giboshi (擬宝珠, the onion-shaped finials traditionally seen on shrine and temple bridges) — represents a thoughtful blend of modern reinforced concrete engineering with traditional Japanese aesthetic vocabulary. Third, the bridge sits on a bend in the Otani River, where its silhouette anchors one of the most symbolic views of the entire onsen town.

Highlights and What to Look For

At only 11 meters long and 4.8 meters wide (with an effective walking width of 2.5 meters), Momoshima Bridge is a modest structure — but the details reward a slow crossing.

Look first at the parent pillars (親柱) at each corner. Each is topped with a small lantern, and four miniature giboshi sit along the rails. On the side of the pillar, a small bronze plaque reads "Showa 1, December — built here" (昭和元年十二月架之), confirming the bridge's completion in December 1926, just months after construction began. Then step back and admire the gentle bow of the railing as it springs from one bank and curves down to the other. The bridge is positioned at a curve in the Otani River, so from either approach, it presents a different but equally photogenic profile.

Momoshima Bridge sits about 50 meters east of Yanagi-yu Bridge, the closest of its sister bridges. Together with Atago Bridge, Yanagi-yu Bridge, and Benten Bridge — the so-called "Yumigata Bridge Group" (弓形橋群) — it forms a sequence of arched crossings unique to Kinosaki. Walking the willow-lined promenade and counting them off is one of the simplest and most enjoyable strolls in town.

Around the Bridge: A Day in Kinosaki Onsen

Momoshima Bridge is right in the middle of one of Japan's most enjoyable walking towns. Kinosaki Onsen, with more than 1,300 years of bathing history, is famous for its seven public bathhouses (外湯, sotoyu), each with its own architecture, water, and reputed benefit. Most visitors check into a ryokan, change into a yukata and wooden geta, and spend the afternoon and evening walking from one bath to another — and almost every route between them crosses one of the registered bridges.

Within a few minutes' walk of Momoshima Bridge, you can soak at Yanagi-yu (柳湯), said to bring good fortune in childbirth, or at Ichi-no-yu (一の湯), the kabuki-theater-styled bathhouse where Edo-period physician Kagawa Shutoku once declared the waters "the finest under heaven." The Kinosaki Bungaku-kan literary museum nearby celebrates the writers — most famously Shiga Naoya, author of the short story "At Kinosaki" — who took the cure here. For a longer excursion, the basalt cliffs of Genbudo Cave, a national natural monument, are a short bus or taxi ride away, as is the Sea of Japan coast and the cable car up Mt. Daishi.

Winter is the season of snow crab, and many travelers time their visit to feast on Tsuiyama-gani; spring and autumn bring milder weather and brilliant foliage; summer is the season of fireworks and yukata. In any season, crossing Momoshima Bridge in the soft glow of evening lanterns is a memory many visitors take home.