大阪天神橋

About this photo

A single boat floats at an angle on the wide water in the foreground. The upper half or so is pale sky, and between the two, the far bank stretches all the way across as a low, dark band. On the bank toward the right stand a couple of thin vertical shapes, and on the water near the left bank are a few small shapes that look like boats.

Tenjin Bridge, in the title, was known along with Tenma Bridge and Naniwa Bridge as one of the "Three Great Bridges of Naniwa." It was a wooden bridge until the early Meiji era, but was washed away in the great Yodo River flood of July 1885, and in 1888 it was rebuilt as an iron truss bridge imported from Germany. The span between its supports was the longest of any road bridge in Japan at the time. Around 1898, when the book came out, Tenjin Bridge was this iron bridge; the bridge there today was built in 1934.

Look closely at the boat in front: a single person is standing at its left end.

Glossary