Asanogawa Bridge

A Three-Arch Bridge of 1922

The Asanogawa Bridge (浅野川大橋) is a reinforced concrete arch bridge of 1922 in Kanazawa City, Ishikawa Prefecture, over the Asano River, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on December 4, 2000 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency records a reinforced concrete bridge of three arches, 55 metres long and 17 metres wide; registration number 17-0039.

A Crossing Since the Domain Era

The Asanogawa Bridge stands at a crossing that has mattered since the days of the Kaga domain and now carries National Route 157 over the Asano River (Agency for Cultural Affairs), linking Hashiba-machi and Kazue-machi with Higashiyama.

According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, the Asano is also called the "women's river". The earlier bridge, known as the Todoroki bridge, was damaged in repeated floods, and in 1922 it was replaced by the present permanent bridge.

Why It Was Registered

The Asanogawa Bridge was registered as a model of form. It is a reinforced concrete bridge on which no care was spared in the finishing.

What to Look For

It is a filled-spandrel reinforced concrete bridge of three arches, 55 metres long and 17 metres wide (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The spandrel walls have a roughcast finish in the "German wall" manner, the arch rings are of exposed-aggregate concrete with joints, and the cutwaters of the piers are faced in granite.

The arches of the Asanogawa Bridge show best from the riverbank. Look at the three arch rings and the granite cutwaters at the noses of the piers. At the north end of the bridge stands the Asanogawa Bridge Fire Watchtower of 1924.

Visiting

The Asanogawa Bridge is a road bridge and can be crossed on foot at any time. It runs from Hashiba-machi and Kazue-machi to Higashiyama in Kanazawa (Agency for Cultural Affairs) and is owned by the national government (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism).