jaue2023005: Features and Distribution of Megane-bashi Bridge in the Satsuma Territory

Abstract

In Satsuma during the Edo period (1603-1867), the megane-bashi bridges were built with a different stacking method than that of the Hizen-Nagasaki megane-bashi bridge. A representative megane-bashi bridge is the Gosekkyo Bridges on the Kotsuki River, built by Sangoro Iwanaga, a stonemason in Higo (present-day Kumamoto Prefecture). After building the Gosekkyo Bridges, Sangoro Iwanaga built the Enokuchi Bridge in 1849 in present- day Satsumasendai City. Unlike the hewn stone Cloth masonry of the megane-bashi bridge in Nagasaki, the masonry of the Enokuchi Bridge is Fan masonry. This paper explains where the same masonry piling method as that of the Enokuchi Bridge prevailed and how the method of bridge construction changed. The same masonry stacking method of the Enokuchi Bridge influenced the other bridges in Miyazaki Prefecture, in addition to those in Kagoshima Prefecture as a whole. It was found that the megane-bashi bridge, which has the same masonry piling as the Enokuchi Bridge, uses a piling technique called "Double-ring stone," in which cut stones are piled along the arch rings in addition to the Fan masonry.