Uji Bridge

Uji Bridge (宇治橋) crosses the Uji River in Uji, Kyoto Prefecture, with construction recorded in the Uji Bridge stele as 646 CE, making it one of the oldest bridges in Japan. The bridge is the origin of the Hashihime cult, the goddess of bridges enshrined at Hashihime Shrine at the western end, whose presence is recorded in a poem of the Kokinshu. The Sumiyoshi triad (Uwatsutsuo-no-Mikoto, Nakatsutsuo-no-Mikoto, Sokotsutsuo-no-Mikoto) recorded in the Kojiki (712 CE) is enshrined in the subordinate Sumiyoshi shrine. The bridge is also the setting of the final ten chapters of the Tale of Genji, the so-called Uji chapters, and its mid-span sanno-ma platform is associated with Toyotomi Hideyoshi's water-drawing legend.