On February 17, 1990, the Japanese Covered Bridge had been granted the title “National Historic – Cultural Monument”. Nowadays, along with the temple, the Japanese Covered Bridge has become an important tourism site of Hoi An old town, Vietnam. Ever since the Bridge had been under the control and management of the Vietnamese in Hoi An old town. However, in 1633, the Japanese government had issued an order to stop having trade relations with foreign countries, resulting in all the Japanese that were living in Hoi An had to return to their homeland, the last one of them left in 1637. They started a peaceful life in the Hoi An old town, exchanging products and trading to earn their living, hence the Japanese Covered Bridge being built. So why was the Japanese Covered Bridge built in the first place? During the Nguyen Dynasty, international refugees, Chinese and Japanese to be exact, were welcomed into the borders of Vietnam. The Japanese Covered Bridge had also become a cultural symbol of Vietnam, Japan and China. Therefore nowadays, when visiting the Japanese Covered Bridge, guests can explore both the bridge and the temple nearby. The ancient people living in Hoi An believed that under the Bridge was the lair of monsters and kappas, so in 1653, the Vietnamese and the Chinese built a temple to control them, connecting it to the Northern corridor of the Bridge. The “sword” – as in the Bridge, had succeed in stopping it from squirming and causing frightfully earthquakes. This was a hideous and dangerous monster, which was so big that its head stayed in India, its body lied in Vietnam and its tail was in Japan. Some ancient people believed that the bridge served its position as the magical sword to control the Japanese monster Namazu. In conclusion, we can be assured that the Japanese Covered Bridge had existed in the port of Hoi An town at least from 1617.īeing built by the Japanese, so of course, the bridge was also named “the Japanese bridge”. In the Vietnamese ancient bibliography, the Bridge had first appeared in the documents of 1617. Photo: Īccording to a Vietnamese researcher named Vu Duc Tan and his writing for the Vietnam Magazine, as well as another foreign author of The Asian Wall Street Journal magazine, the Japanese Covered Bridge had been finished building in 1593. However, there has been a number of researches shows the relative time phrases of the Japanese Covered Bridge building operation. The exact time of the beginning and the end of the construction process, until nowadays, still remain hidden. To be more specific, the Cau Pagoda (Chùa Cầu) had been built by the Japanese businessmen since the 17th century. One of the factors that attract tourists from all over the world to the Japanese Covered Bridge in Hoi An old town is its long-term, impressive history.
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