THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
March 23, 2025 at 07:00 JST
The movable bridge appears to be stuck in the townscape around Tei Port in this photo taken on Feb. 13 in Konan, Kochi Prefecture. (Yoshinori Mizuno)
KONAN, Kochi Prefecture—Visitors to this port city are met with a bizarre sight worthy of a surreal painting—a two-lane road sticking right out of the townscape into the sky at a 70-degree angle, going nowhere.
While this seemingly nonsensical structure elicits double takes and gasps of astonishment, appearances can be deceiving.
The 32.8-meter-long structure is actually a movable bridge that rises and falls to allow ships to pass through the harbor.
The drawbridge was completed in 2002 in the Yasucho district of Konan along the Pacific Ocean. Behind it lies Tei Port, Japan’s oldest excavated harbor, which dates to the early Edo Period (1603-1867).
The rectangular harbor, which maintains its stone embankment, measures 112 meters from north to south and 49 meters from east to west. Today, it serves as home to numerous fishing boats and leisure vessels.
When developing the bridge for Tei Port, Kochi Prefecture officials were faced with several obstacles. A standard bridge would have obstructed ship access to the port and obscured its historic scenery.
To get around these issues, the prefectural government considered four types of movable bridges—including a vertically lifting bridge and another that rotates horizontally—before settling on the current design.
“I was simply astonished (by the plan) because I never imagined a street could be lifted like that,” said Katsunori Maruoka, 71, the representative director of the city’s tourism association and owner of a nearby car dealership.
Maruoka added that he did not like the structure initially.
“To me, the bridge looked imbalanced and unrefined,” said Maruoka.
But the moving bridge saw a sudden, dramatic surge in popularity after being featured in a car commercial that aired in 2016. In it, a driver is stunned to find the raised drawbridge blocking the path.
Sightseers began flocking to the site from both in and outside of Kochi Prefecture, eager to capture the moment the bridge moves—which it does 12 times a day—on camera.
Naofumi Tanimoto, 56, a prefectural official, prides himself on being appointed the construction program’s supervisor.
“Though the unprecedented work was challenging, it’s a memorable achievement for me as an engineer to have completed a structure that makes such a lasting impression,” said Tanimoto.
The bridge has been left in a raised position recently while undergoing maintenance, but it will begin moving again around mid-March.
Having a population of 32,000 in central-eastern Kochi Prefecture, Konan is also famous for the prefecture-run Noichi Zoological Park and Ya-Sea Park, a swimming beach with a 345-meter boardwalk and white sand.
(This article was written by Kazunori Haga and Yoshinori Mizuno.)
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