高麗橋

About this print

This nishiki-e shows Korai Bridge over the Higashi-Yokobori River in Osaka. It is from Naniwa Hyakkei (One Hundred Views of Naniwa, an old name for Osaka), a series by the Osaka artist Hasegawa Sadanobu I. About 60 prints in horizontal chuban (medium) size were issued from the end of the Edo period into the early Meiji era. The source gives no date for this one.

The Higashi-Yokobori River was dug as a moat guarding the west side of Osaka Castle when Toyotomi Hideyoshi built the castle. There are several theories about the origin of the name Korai (Korea), including that the bridge was used to welcome envoys from Korea. In the Edo period it was one of the kogibashi, bridges maintained by the shogunate, and the area around it was a center of commerce lined with large merchant houses. In 1870 (Meiji 3) it became Osaka's first iron bridge, and later the ritei genpyo, the marker from which road distances in western Japan were measured, was placed there.

The present bridge is a reinforced concrete arch bridge built in 1929. Although the Hanshin Expressway now runs overhead, the bridge has been chosen as one of the 50 Famous Bridges of Naniwa.

Glossary