Minolta history
In the center of the Sakai plant in Japan is Okina bridge. In the 15th century, Sakai was a very prosperous free city, and Okina bridge spanned the moat at one of the entrances into the walled town. For cen- turies, this bridge carried pilgrims on their way to two of Japan’s sacred places: the mountain monastery of Koyasan and the great Shinto shrine, Kumano Taisha.
The bridge in the courtyard dates from 1855. In 1968, Minolta offered to remove and preserve the bridge when the city government announced they would fill in the moat for a planned highway. The bridge now spans a specially constructed goldfish pond. The writing on the stone bollard at the front of the bridge prohibits vehicles from crossing.
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