jaue2023009: Propagation of the Nagasaki Megane-bashi Bridge Built by Chinese Monks

Abstract

The Nagasaki Megane-bashi Bridge, built in 1634 during the Edo period (1603-1868), was Japan's first bridge for megane-bashi bridge and was built by Mokusu Nyojyo, a priest of Kofukuji Temple (Nagasaki City), who came from China in the Ming Dynasty. The Nagasaki Megane-bashi Bridge, built by Chinese monks, is a semicircular arch without keystones, and the wall stones are piled horizontally with hewn stones, known as "Cloth masonry," and plaster is used for the joints. About 20 bridges similar to the Nagasaki Megane-bashi Bridge were built along the Nakashima River in Nagasaki City where the bridge was built. This paper will clarify where the style of the Nagasaki Megane-bashi Bridge spread and how the arch erection style changed. These bridges, built with the same wall masonry as the Nagasaki Megane-bashi Bridge, follow the same technique known as "Cloth masonry" and circular masonry without keystones of the Nagasaki Megane-bashi Bridge built by Chinese monks, but the plaster joints have disappeared and the arches have been replaced by flattened segmental arches.