Sumida River

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The Sumida River flowing through Adachi, Tokyo

The Sumida River (隅田川, Sumida-gawa) is a river which flows through Tokyo, Japan. It branches from the Arakawa River at Iwabuchi and flows into Tokyo Bay. Its tributaries include the Kanda and Shakujii rivers.

What is now known as the "Sumida River" was previously the path of the Arakawa, however towards the end of the Meiji era work was carried out to divert the main flow of the Arakawa to prevent flooding.

It passes through the following wards of Tokyo:

One of the many bridges over the Sumida

1 Culture
2 Literature
3 Sumida bridges
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Culture

The noh play Sumidagawa, which the British composer Benjamin Britten saw while visiting Japan in 1956, inspired him to compose Curlew River (1964), a dramatic work based on the story.

The kabuki play, Sumidagawa--Gonichi no Omokage, is perhaps better known by the title Hokaibo, which is the name of the central character. This stage drama was written by Nakawa Shimesuke, and it was first produced in Osaka in 1784. The play continues to be included in kabuki repertoire in Japan; and it is also performed in the West. It was recreated by Heisei Nakamura-za in the Lincoln Center Festival in New York in the summer of 2007, with Nakamura Kansaburo XVIII leading the cast.^[1]

[edit] Literature

The poet Matsuo Bashō lived by the Sumida River, alongside the famous banana tree (Japanese: bashō) from which he takes his nom de plume.^[2]

The Sumida River appears in a haiku by Issa from 1820:

spring peace--
a mouse licking up
Sumida River

[edit] Sumida bridges

The Sumida runs through Tokyo for 27 kilometers, under 26 bridges spaced at about one bridge per kilometer. Amongst these, the principal ones are:

The Senju Ohashi or Senju Bridge, dating from 1921, replaced an earlier bridge initially constructed in 1594, which was for a long time the only bridge across the river.-- link to digitized image of Hiroshige's "Great Senju Bridge" (1875)

The Sakura-bashi or Sakura Bridge, dating from 1985.--link to recent, digitized photograph of Sakurabashi

The Kototoi-bashi or Kototoi Bridge, dating from 1928, was reconstructed at the location of the bridge which linked two nearby temples -- the Mimeguri-Jinja and the Matsuchiyama-shoden.-- link to recent, digitized photograph of Kototoi Bridge

The Azuma-bashi or Azuma Bridge, dating from 1931, replaced the bridge which was first built in 1774. This bridge is closest to Asakusa Station and the Kaminari-Mon.-- link to digitized image of Meiji-era postcard featuring Azuma Bridge

The Komagata-bashi or the Komagata Bridge, dating from 1927, takes its name from the Matsugata temple dedicated to Bato-Kanon.-- link to recent, digitized panorama photo of Komagata Bridge in foreground and Azuma bridge in background

The Umaya-bashi or the Umaya Bridge, dating from 1929, replaced a bridge built in 1875.

Katsushika Hokusai published this view of the Ryōgoku-bashi as an ukiyoe print.

* The Ryōgoku-bashi or Ryōgoku Bridge, dating from 1932, replaced a bridge built in 1659. This bridge was immortalized many times by Hiroshige.

The Shin Ohashi or the New Bridge, dating from 1976, replaced a bridge built in 1693. This bridge was not far from the Ryōgoku Bridge.^[3]-- link to recent, digitized photograph of Shin Ohashi Bridge

The Kiyosu-bashi or the Kiyosu Bridge, dating from 1938, links Kiyosu with Nihonbashi-Nakasu.-- link to recent, digitized photograph of Kiyosubashi Bridge

View of the Nihon-bashi at dawn, a ukiyoe print by Hiroshige

* The Nihon-bashi or Nihon bridge, dating from the 1600s, was the bridge at which the Naksendō and Tōkaidō terminated (or the place from which they were said to have begun) during the Edo period. In those days, this bridge was called the Edo-bashi or Edo Bridge.

The Eitai-bashi or Eitai Bridge, dating from 1924, replaces a bridge built in 1696.^[4]-- link to digitized, pre-war photo-postcard of Eitai Bridge

The Kachidoki-bashi lit at night.

The Chuo Ohashi or the Chuo Bridge, dating from 1994, is the most recently built of the bridges across the Sumida.-- link to recent, digitized photograph of Chuo Ohasi Bridge -- Java-driven 360^o moving photo scan

The Tsukuda Ohashi or Tsukuda Bridge, dating from 1953, was the first bridge built after the second world war.-- link to recent, digitized photograph of Tuskuda Ohashi Bridge

The Kachidoki Ohashi or Kachidoki Bridge was constructed in 1940 for the commemoration of the victory of the Japanese army at Lushun during the Russo-Japanese War. This bridge is the only drawbridge on the Sumida, and has not been raised since 1970.-- link to recent, digitized photograph of Kachidoki Bridge

[edit] References

^ Lincoln Center Festival, Hokaibo program notes in Playbill. July 10-29, 2007.
^ See, for example, the opening lines of Records of a Weather Exposed Skeleton, published in The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches, published by Penguin Classics
^ Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). Annales des empereurs du Japon, p. 415.
^ Titsingh, p. 415.