Local community members at a UNESCO World Heritage site in central Japan are repairing the roofs of a 200-year-old temple.
Houses in the Shirakawa Village district are known for steeply pitched tops that must be re-thatched every 20 to 30 years.
The work has traditionally been done by members of the community.
On Saturday, more than 130 villagers, including local students, took part.
The participants put around 9,000 bundles of grass-like sedge onto the roofs without using machinery.
They tied the bundles to the roof frames with straw rope.
(Villager)
“I was impressed to learn that everything was made manually.”
Nowadays, more residents are entrusting re-thatching work to professionals, as members of the community are getting older, and the work requires many people.
Saturday's work was the first such re-thatching in five years due in part to the coronavirus pandemic.
◆thatched わらぶきの、草ぶきの
◆sedge スゲ