Nihonbashi Bridge Opening Anniversary

What Is Nihonbashi Bridge Opening Anniversary?

Every April 3rd marks the anniversary of the opening of the current Nihonbashi Bridge (日本橋) in Tokyo on April 3, 1911. The elegant two-arch stone bridge, built in a Western Renaissance style, replaced an earlier wooden bridge at the same site on the central commercial artery of Tokyo. Nihonbashi — whose name means "Bridge of Japan" — has served since the Edo period as the symbolic center of the nation's road network, and its stone reincarnation of 1911 became an enduring symbol of Meiji Japan's aspirations toward modernity.

A Bridge at the Center of Japan

The original Nihonbashi wooden bridge was first constructed in 1603, the year Tokugawa Ieyasu established his shogunate in Edo (present-day Tokyo). The Tokugawa government designated Nihonbashi as the starting point of the Five Highways (五街道, Gokaidō) — the great roads radiating from Edo to all corners of Japan. Distances across the country were measured from Nihonbashi, making it quite literally the zero-point of the nation's geography. This tradition continues: the "0 km marker" for Japan's national road system is located at the center of the current bridge.

The Stone Bridge of 1911

The current stone bridge, which replaced the 19th wooden predecessor, was designed by architect Yorinaka Tsumaki in a florid Renaissance Revival style, complete with decorative bronze lamp posts and bronze lions and unicorns at the four corners. It was the first reinforced concrete bridge in Tokyo to be faced with stone. The bridge is a Nationally Designated Important Cultural Property of Japan.

Nihonbashi Today: Under an Expressway

A striking feature of today's Nihonbashi is the elevated expressway that runs directly above it — a legacy of construction for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics that dramatically obscured the historic bridge from view. Efforts to restore the view of the sky above Nihonbashi by rerouting the expressway underground have been ongoing for decades, with plans for completion sometime in the 2030s.

Fun Facts

• The zero kilometer marker: A stone marker set into the road surface at the center of Nihonbashi designates it as the starting point of Japan's national road network.
• Bronze decorations: The bridge's decorative bronze elements include "kirin" (麒麟, mythical creatures symbolizing prosperity) and "shishi" (獅子, lion-dogs symbolizing courage).
• Edo period prints: Nihonbashi appeared in countless ukiyo-e woodblock prints during the Edo period, establishing it as one of the most recognizable images of old Edo in Japanese visual culture.