Location (Daigan-ji): Higashi-Mikuni, Yodogawa Ward (near JR Line Higashi-Yodogawa Stn.), Osaka City, 3 km or just under 2 miles north of Nagarabashi; about 2 minutes from Osaka (Shin-Osaka) + 2 minutes walking time, longer if you're going walk to the river.
Associated with: A local Hashihime legend; and a type of human sacrifice known as "human pillar" or "hitobashira"
I thought this one would be easy and straightforward. A bridge in the city, just walk over it. No sweat, right? Well that part was easy enough, but the tough part came in trying to confirm the origin of the Hashihime legend. The story of the Hashihime of Uji involved a woman's burning desire for revenge, and an elaborate and evoking ritual. The Hashihime of Nagarabashi seems to have been more about death and loss.
The legend I'll begin with is a little more odd and disturbing than the average folk tale. It goes something like this:
A man wearing light yellow hakama trousers, scuffed at the knees with white linen patches, was passing by with his wife and child. While stopping to rest at the building site, he mused, "For this bridge, they should make a human sacrifice of a man wearing light yellow hakama trousers, scuffed at the knees with white linen patches."
I imagine this is when the man comically glances down and realizes what he has on. Nothing funny about happens next though:
The foreman heard this and had the man, his wife, and his child buried alive. The wife sang as she was cast in.
According to this tale, the wife then becomes a Hashihime and is enshrined not far from the bridge. Things get a bit complicated from here, but let me just quickly point out now that unlike the Hashihime Shrine in Uji, this shrine no longer exists.
Okay, so what's going on here? The tale appears to be a tangle of various accounts of human sacrifice. Yet it also appears to be the case that a man was indeed sacrificed for the successful construction of the Nagarabashi Bridge.
Let's start with the man. History has recorded him to be a fellow by the name of Iwa or Iwa-uji, a wealthy but pious fellow who lived in the Tarumi District of Suita. From the dates we can assume he was living there at the turn of 7th century. He is said to have willingly given his life to aid in the construction of the Nagara Bridge for the benefit of the community. (I also read a brief account that he did not sacrifice himself, but instead may have offered up a favorite male servant.)
Now why is anybody giving their life (or favorite male servant's life) to aid the construction of anything? Complex works projects, especially those involving water in some way, could be plagued with problems. Building something like a dam or a bridge is difficult at the best of times. Repeated failure to set a proper foundation, mount pillars, etc., sometimes led people to think that they may have been facing supernatural opposition rather than technological disadvantage. A human sacrifice was then on occasion made to placate this opposition via an unpleasant, nay, terrifying form of human sacrifice known as hitobashira or "human pillar" sacrifice, one involving burying alive the victim-offering directly into a foundation or river bed. Not all hitobashira sacrifices were necessarily done so deliberately. Casualties of the difficult construction process might be framed as hitobashira after the fact.
The nonsense about the man's very specific type of trousers is probably just a flourish added to the story, but we do have the account of Gensuke, a man who unwillingly was sacrificed for the construction of the Ohashi Bridge in Matsue City, Shimane Prefecture. During construction it was decided that the first person to pass wearing their hakama trousers a certain way would be the one sacrificed, and poor Gensuke ended up being the fashion victim. This kind of "cruel or ironic lottery" element is in more than a few human sacrifice tales, and Gensuke's sacrifice appears to be the basis for this (or at least the most famous among such tellings).
Eigyoku, c 1910-20 (Source: Japanese Art Open Database, http://www.jaodb.com/ via http://ukiyo-e.org)
The wife or woman and child come from an account of a human sacrifice for a bridge being built across another Nagara River, again in a different part of the country. It looks as if our fellow Iwa was the only one actually sacrificed here, though we do have another account of his wife throwing herself into the river afterward. The better known telling does not have his wife quite so overcome with grief, but dealing with loss in a different way:
Upon the repeated failure to span a bridge over the River Nagara, Iwauji of Tarumizu Village told the authorities that the human-post was the only way to lay the foundation of the bridge, and so he was buried alive to serve as one. He was survived by a daughter, whom her mother told to pretend to be dumb when she married the son of a squire. Because he found her to be dumb, the squire took her [back] to her mother's, when on their way to the village of Tarumizu he shot a pheasant which had cried out. "As with my father, who would have been spared if he kept silent, so the pheasant would not have been killed had it been silent," so the bride expressed her sorrow for the ill-fated bird in a poem. Her bridegroom was happy that after all she was not dumb and took her back to his own home where they lived happy till they grew old.
- From "We Japanese," Frederic de Garis and Atsuharu Sakai
Through a very convoluted mix of tales, it is the wife/mother who remains the candidate for the Hashihime in this local variant, perhaps as a surrogate or place holder for a water deity that had been the subject of traditional worship in the area. Unfortunately, the shrine no longer exists. So what's left to do?
Iwa-uji is still remembered in Daigan-ji Temple (formerly Hashimoto Temple) and in the Nagara Human Sacrifice Monument just north of it. It was here that the original Nagarabashi was thought to span the Kanzakigawa River from Higashi-Mikuni to Suita. Did you catch that? The current Nagarabashi is not the same bridge, it's not in the same area, and it's spanning a completely different river. It's now about 3 kilometers (or just under 2 miles) south of Daigan-ji. So what do we do?
Comments: I haven't come this far not to give you directions to the bridge! If you like long bridges then by all means go and check it out. It is kind of at the north end of the Tenjinbashi-suji Shopping Street, which is the longest shotengai style shopping arcade in Japan. Along the shopping arcade are a few sites of interest, one of which is Osaka Tenmangu Shrine. If you're well into your trip, there is a good chance that you are already shotengai-ed and shrine-ed out, in which case I recommend doing something else.
Daigan-ji Temple though appears more interesting than I thought at first glance. The Sacrifice Monument is one block north of the temple and off the map, so that's a nice tidbit to check out. Higashi-Yodogawa Stn. is also just six blocks north of Shin-Osaka Stn., so if your hotel is in the Shin-Osaka area and you have a few hours to spare, this trip is totally doable.
Be sure to read Part 2 for directions to each site:
http://yokaitourbus.blogspot.jp/2015/09/iv-nagarabashi-bridge-and-daigan-ji_17.html
Driver Gragma (yokaitourbus "at" mail "dot" com)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yokaitourbus/
The Master List (Osaka)
http://yokaitourbus.blogspot.jp/2015/08/6-the-master-list-osaka.html
(historical) "Human Pillar" Human Sacrifice (人柱 or "Hitobashira")
Site: Daigan-ji Temple (大願寺)
Nearest Station: (JR Line) Higashi-Yodogawa Stn. (東淀川駅)
Google Map Search: "Daigan-ji Temple Yodogawa" or "Daigan-ji Temple Osaka" - There are several temples named "Daigan-ji" in Japan, so perhaps cross reference the location with Higashi-Yodogawa Stn.
(yokai/historical) Hashihime (橋姫), local variant; "Human Pillar" Human Sacrifice (人柱 or "Hitobashira")
Site: Nagarabashi Bridge (長柄橋)
Nearest Station: (Subway) Tenjinbashisujirokuchome Stn. (天神橋筋六丁目駅) coming from the south; or (Hankyu Line) Sozenji Stn. (崇禅寺駅) coming from the north. Kunijima Stn. (柴島駅), on a different Hankyu Line, lies more-or-less next to Sozenji Stn., but you will probably find it less convenient if you plan to travel back to Umeda or onward into Kyoto.
Google Map Search: Try "Eneos Nagarabashi SS," which is a service station south of the bridge. If you follow the road the service station is situated on (Tenjinbashisuji), the river you come to is the Yodogawa River and the bridge is the Nagarabashi Bridge.
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