500 years ago, the capital of Kyoto was in chaos with the battle of Ounin no ran. Many court nobles and citizens escaped from the capital to the Otokuni village. On one night, a beautiful princess was hiding her body with a long cloth and was walking very quickly supported by her servants.
She was actually crying 'I am very worried about my father in the capital. What is he doing now?'
She walked from Katsura to Terado at which place the road stopped at the banks of the river. The river was 2 meters wide, so deep and there was no bridge.
She said, 'With great effort I have been able to escape from the capital to here but i cannot cross the river and I will have to give up.'
She heard a voice from the big trees by the river, 'Use your Koto as a bridge!'
She was so surprised. The voice was Dainichi Nyorai, a priest whom she had always followed.
She immediately ordered her servants to cross the river using her Koto and she escaped at last.
After that legendary incident a stone bridge was built over the river and people called that bridge 'Koto no Hashi'.
When the City paved the surrounding roads they rebuilt it in concrete.
Now there is no trace of the koto origin of the bridge so it has been renamed the 'Bridge of Illusion'.