Uji Bridge Stele Fragment

Uji Bridge Stele Fragment: A Seventh-Century Record of the Uji Bridge

The Uji Bridge Stele Fragment (宇治橋断碑, Ujibashi Danpi) is an Asuka-period stone stele at Hashidera Hojoin temple in Uji City, Kyoto Prefecture, recording the building of the Uji Bridge in 646, and was designated an Important Cultural Property in 1965.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs lists it as one stele, classified as a historical document, dated to the Asuka period and the year 646, and owned by Hojoin. It was designated on 29 May 1965.

Danpi means a broken stele. The name itself tells you that the stone has come down in damaged form rather than intact.

Why It Is Protected

Speaking to the government's Highlighting Japan magazine, Uji City's tourism office explained that, according to the inscription on the stele at Hojoin, the Uji Bridge was built in 646 by Doto, a monk of Gango-ji temple in Nara. The bridge went on to play a major role in history as a crossing on the water and land routes between Nara and Kyoto.

The Uji Bridge Stele Fragment records the beginning of that bridge, and the agency designated it as a historical document bearing an Asuka-period date. Its value lies in being a written record carved in stone from an age that has left very few such inscriptions.

Specialists debate how the inscription came to be made and how much of the stone is original. This article does not go into those questions and follows the agency's record.

What to Look For

Hojoin stands close to the Uji Bridge and is popularly called Hashidera, the Bridge Temple. The temple at the bridge's foot has guarded the stone that tells the bridge's origin. At the stele, look at the arrangement of the characters and the outline of the missing parts.

From the temple you can walk to the Uji Bridge itself and see the crossing the stele records. The present bridge dates from 1996 and is described as 101.8 metres long and 8.4 metres wide. Between the stele and the bridge, you can follow the story from the first crossing through its many rebuildings.

Visiting Hojoin

The Uji Bridge Stele Fragment is at Hashidera Hojoin in Uji, near the Uji Bridge, within walking distance of Uji Station on the Keihan Uji Line and Uji Station on the JR Nara Line.

No official information from the temple on viewing hours or fees could be found. Contact Hojoin in advance if you wish to see the stele.

Follow the temple's instructions on photography. The precinct is a place of worship, so be considerate of people at prayer.