Waterway Pavilion

The Suirokaku Water Bridge is a brick aqueduct with wide, heavy arches that cuts directly through the grounds of Nanzenji Temple. It was finished in eighteen eighty-eight as part of the Lake Biwa Canal project, designed to carry water from the lake to Kyoto to power the city’s early industrial mills. Engineers used brick and granite in a Roman-style design, a sharp contrast to the wooden temple buildings. During construction, monks at the temple protested the intrusion, fearing the project would destroy their sacred grounds.