Following up on William’s post from the 4th of November about Kumamoto Castle repairs, I wanted to share some info about another extremely important regional site damaged in the earthquake - Aso Shrine. Aso Shrine is one of the oldest remaining Shinto shrines in the entire country, and as such many of its structures suffered heavy damage in the quake. The romon (the big tower gate that you pass through to access the main areas of the shrine) completely collapsed.
The website for Aso Shrine provides a lot of information in English, and also provides a monthly progress report to explain what’s been going on with repair efforts (though as far as I can tell the progress reports are only available in Japanese). The reports give a small amount of information about the repair efforts undertaken in the given month and also include pictures, so I think they’re worth looking at even if you don’t read Japanese.
While it’s natural that repair efforts would proceed slowly, it makes me happy that so many people are working so hard to help protect and repair such a beautiful and important site.
-Grace
