Kiyosu Bridge

A three-span self-anchored suspension bridge completed in 1928, 186.2 metres long. Modelled on Germany's Great Suspension Bridge in Cologne, it was designed to be feminine and graceful, a counterpoint to the masculine strength of Eitai Bridge upstream. In 2007 it became the first road bridge under prefectural management to be designated an Important Cultural Property.

Use

Bridge

Area

Chuo City

Completed

1928

Developer

Reconstruction Bureau, Home Ministry

Architect

Enzo Ota, Seiichi Suzuki, and others (Reconstruction Bureau)

A Graceful Suspension Bridge on the Sumida

Kiyosu Bridge is a three-span self-anchored suspension bridge across the lower Sumida River. The present bridge was completed in March 1928. It is 186.2 metres long. It is one of the reconstruction bridges built by the Home Ministry’s Reconstruction Bureau during the imperial capital’s recovery from the Great Kanto Earthquake. A self-anchored bridge fixes its cables not to underground anchorages but to the bridge girder itself — a technical device for realising a suspension bridge within confined riverbanks.

Its design took as its model the Great Suspension Bridge of Cologne, praised in its day as “the most beautiful bridge in the world.” The curve of the suspenders descending from the towers to converge on the girder at each end is delicate; in contrast to the heavy, masculine arch of Eitai Bridge downstream, it was deliberately designed as a feminine and graceful bridge. Two bridges over the same Sumida play a paired expression of strength and gentleness.

Design the Recovery Refined

Kiyosu Bridge is highly regarded as an embodiment of the modern bridge design based on mechanical rationality that the Reconstruction Bureau pursued. Employing the cutting-edge technology of its time, it inscribed its name in bridge history as a representative suspension bridge of the early Showa era. The thinking of a recovery that turned the crisis of an earthquake not into mere rebuilding but into an occasion to reconsider a city’s scenery and its technology is distilled in this one bridge.

In 2007 Kiyosu Bridge was designated an Important Cultural Property alongside the Eitai and Kachidoki bridges. Kiyosu was, moreover, the first road bridge under prefectural management to receive that designation. Having carried people and vehicles for more than ninety years, its graceful form still lends a quiet dignity to the waterside of the Sumida.

Summary

Completed in 1928 and 186.2 metres long, Kiyosu Bridge — modelled on Cologne’s great suspension bridge — is a representative self-anchored suspension bridge of the early Showa era and the first prefectural road bridge designated an Important Cultural Property, still gracing the scenery of the Sumida.

Look up as you cross and the curve traced by the suspenders drooping gently from the towers cuts a supple arc against the sky. Compare it with the powerful arch of Eitai Bridge downstream and the difference in expression between two bridges of the same recovery era stands out sharply. Walk on to Kachidoki Bridge and you can take in three great bridges — bascule, suspension, and arch — in a single stroll along the Sumida.

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