Drum Bridge arching over stream (Taiko Bashi)

Commissioned by the government of Japan to create Drum Bridge (Taiko Bashi) for the 1894 San Francisco Midwinter Fair, Shinshichi Nakatani [1849-1922] designed and built the bridge in Japan, had a Shinto blessing for it, and brought it to San Francisco. He sold the Nakatani family rice fields to complete the Bridge and create the Bell Gate through which visitors enter the Japanese Tea Garden. His son then remained and worked in San Francisco for nearly half a century earning money to repurchase the family fields.