Qualla: Japanese Bridge https://qualla.com/japanese-bridge en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 27 Jul 2026 10:40:53 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/w/6/v/4/japanese-bridge-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Japanese Bridge https://qualla.com/japanese-bridge Japanese Bridge: Introduction https://qualla.com/japanese-bridge/ Photo credit Fa2f, CC BY 3.0. The bridge was built to stop an earthquake. Or more precisely, it was built to placate the creature that causes them: Namazu, the giant catfish of Japanese folklore whose thrashing beneath the islands of Japan was understood to be the source of seismic destruction. Japanese merchants living in Hội An in the 17th century built a temple on top of a bridge they had already built for practical reasons, and they populated it with stone guardians — a monkey and a dog, the two animal gods whose task was to hold Namazu still. It is a building that does several things at once: crosses a canal, connects two neighborhoods, houses a shrine, and carries four centuries of accumulated repairs and renovations that have quietly transformed a Japanese structure into something that now belongs to everyone who has ever called Hội An home.

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Image: Fa2f | CC BY 3.0

]]> Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/6/v/4/japanese-bridge-wp/w6v4-japanese-bridge-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Japanese Bridge: Built Between Two Worlds https://qualla.com/japanese-bridge/ Photo credit Suicasmo, CC BY-SA 4.0. During the 16th century, Japanese merchants arrived in the port city then known as Faifo — now Hội An — and established a commercial enclave on the western side of a neighborhood canal. Chinese merchants had their own enclave on the other side. Trade between the two communities r...

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Image: Suicasmo | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/6/v/4/japanese-bridge-wp/w6v4-japanese-bridge-built-between-two-worlds.mp3 0:06 2 full Japanese Bridge: The Temple on the Water https://qualla.com/japanese-bridge/ Photo credit Beelerb, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 1653, Japanese residents added a temple to the north end of the bridge — positioning it, according to tradition, above the point where Namazu was believed to rest. The logic was literal: if the monster lay beneath the ground here, weight above would keep it still, and a temple...

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Image: Beelerb | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/6/v/4/japanese-bridge-wp/w6v4-japanese-bridge-the-temple-on-the-water.mp3 0:06 3 full Japanese Bridge: Four Centuries of Renovation https://qualla.com/japanese-bridge/ Photo credit Ljuba brank, CC BY-SA 4.0. Nothing in Hội An stays purely what it started as. The Japanese merchants who built the bridge withdrew from the city in the 17th century, along with the Dutch East India Company traders who had also been present. Chùa Cầu was left behind in the neighborhood they had built, and s...

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Image: Ljuba brank | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/6/v/4/japanese-bridge-wp/w6v4-japanese-bridge-four-centuries-of-renovation.mp3 0:06 4 full Japanese Bridge: A Symbol at Risk https://qualla.com/japanese-bridge/ Photo credit Ravi Dwivedi, CC BY-SA 4.0. Chùa Cầu appears on the 20,000 Vietnamese đồng banknote — a measure of how thoroughly it has come to represent not just Hội An but Vietnam's relationship to its own heritage. In February 1990, it was designated a National Historic-Cultural Relic. Visitors cross it daily, pause to...

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Image: Ravi Dwivedi | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/6/v/4/japanese-bridge-wp/w6v4-japanese-bridge-a-symbol-at-risk.mp3 0:06 5 full