Koheibashi Bridge
Shikoku uses washes to evoke a calm, atmospheric winter day at Kōheibashi (Army Corps of Engineers Bridge). The text next to the image of a pedestrian bridge and snowy tree-lined riverbanks sets up a contrast between today’s peaceful landscape and the built environment of Imperial Japan. Military personnel from the Army Corps of Engineers headquarters in Hiroshima constructed this suspension bridge in the 22nd year of Meiji (1889), in the early years of Hiroshima’s development into one the major military centers in Japan (pp. 110-111). Shikoku describes the mature stand of some 20 camphor trees (kusunoki) on the elevated banks in relation to city planning efforts to stem flooding downstream; a hedge of karatachi orange trees surrounded Army facility.