[Vnbiz] Remains of 17th-century 'Japanese Bridge' in central Vietnam found

[Phan, Tai]

 Tuesday September 12, 1:01 PM
Remains of 17th-century 'Japanese Bridge' in central Vietnam found
(Kyodo) _ A team of Japanese and Vietnamese researchers has excavated remains of a 17th-century bridge believed built by Japanese settlers at the World Heritage site of Hoi An in central Vietnam, according to the researchers. 
The bridge, a covered structure with a Buddhist pagoda attached to one side, is known as the "Japanese Bridge" in Hoi An's old city. The wooden bridge has been repeatedly repaired by Vietnamese and overseas Chinese since the 18th century and maintains no trace of its original form. 

The researchers from Showa Women's University in Tokyo and the Hanoi National University found clayware and carbonized wooden pegs that appear to have supported bridge columns. 

These were dug out from a 17th-century geological layer at a depth of 2.2 meters below a road at the foot of the bridge. 

The team conducted the excavation work at the site together with city authorities conducting sewage-piping work there. 

Seiichi Kikuchi, a team member and assistant professor at Showa Women's University, says the group's next mission is how to preserve what remains of the bridge. ADVERTISEMENT
 
 

Many Japanese, along with Chinese, Dutch and Indians, are known to have settled in Hoi An, a small town on the coast of the South China Sea in central Vietnam, in the 16th and 17th centuries. It was an important trading center at that time. 

Hoi An's old town was added to UNESCO's World Heritage list in 1999 as a well-preserved example of a Southeast Asian trading port of the 15th-19th centuries, whose buildings display a unique blend of local and foreign influences.