Yatsuhashi Bridge and Japanese Irises

The Yatsuhashi is a zigzagging eight-plank bridge set low over a garden stream, flanked on both sides by purple and white rabbit-ear irises that bloom in early May. The design references a scene from The Tales of Ise, a tenth-century classic in which travelers rest at a marsh crossed by just such a bridge. The poem composed there uses the five syllables of the iris's Japanese name, kakitsubata, as the opening sound of each verse. Walking the bridge here recreates that literary moment, with the irises close enough to touch and the shallow water reflecting the planks underfoot.