Mannen-bashi Bridge: Hokusai's Arch of Ten Thousand Years

Why is it significant?

Pause on the blue steel balustrade of Mannen-bashi Bridge, spanning high above the mouth of the Onagi River where it merges into the Sumida River.

Key Facts

Open the walk

Pause on the blue steel balustrade of Mannen-bashi Bridge, spanning high above the mouth of the Onagi River where it merges into the Sumida River. The poetic name Mannen-bashi translates as the Bridge of Ten Thousand Years, chosen to wish eternal longevity to the timber spans that carried samurai and merchants across this bustling shipping canal. The high arched profile of the bridge offers sweeping views down the water, framed by modern embankments and traditional pleasure houseboats, or yakatabune, tied to the piers.

This bridge was immortalized worldwide in Katsushika Hokusai's celebrated woodblock print, Under Mannen Bridge at Fukagawa, from his Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji series. Hokusai positioned his viewer low on the water, looking up through the soaring semicircular wooden underbelly of the bridge, framing the snow-capped volcanic cone of Mount Fuji in the distance. The sweeping view down the canal evokes the timeless maritime spirit that turned Edo into a thriving canal metropolis.

The Onagi River flowing beneath you was originally excavated in fifteen ninety by master canal engineer Onagi Shiroemon under orders from Tokugawa Ieyasu. The canal served as a crucial, secure inland water highway to transport salt from the salt flats of Gyotoku in Chiba directly into Edo Castle without navigating the treacherous ocean open waters of Tokyo Bay. Water birds rest on the wooden mooring posts, while pleasure cruisers glide beneath the arched steel girders toward the bay.

Later, master printmaker Utagawa Hiroshige also painted this exact bridge in his One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, featuring a turtle suspended from a string in the foreground, sold by merchants to be released into the river for Buddhist merit. The graceful arch of the bridge balustrade frames moving barges against the shimmering waters of the historic Sumida. The graceful arch of the bridge balustrade frames moving barges against the shimmering waters of the historic Sumida.

Walk south along the leafy canal avenue into the grand stone entrance of Kiyosumi Gardens.