Deep in a quiet valley northeast of Kyushu's Mount Aso lies the town of Innai, its central river filled with an absurdly picturesque number of stone bridges. I first read about the town and its equally fascinating surroundings a few years ago, but only recently made the long drive there, a stunning descent through the craggy shoulders of Kyushu's central volcanic mountains.
There are 75 bridges altogether in Innai, making it the most stone bridge-filled town in all of Japan. Why so many stone bridges (some quite grand, some mere slabs) in a peaceful agricultural town not much different to any other? The reason lies partly in a rush of technology that affected Kyushu after the 17th century, and partly in the eccentricity of Innai's developers themselves.
Japan's oldest stone bridge was a structure built in 1456 in Okinawa, destroyed, unfortunately, during WWII. But it was the construction of the Chinese-influenced Megane-bashi bridge in Nagasaki in 1634 that led to a profusion of similar structures around Kyushu. Nagasaki's stonemasons became the proverbial hotcakes of the following century, and derivative "Megane-bashi" can be seen far and near.