A panel exhibition opened Saturday in front of Kumamoto Castle to mark 10 years since a pair of major earthquakes hit the southwestern Japanese prefecture of Kumamoto, highlighting the efforts of craftsmen and city workers to repair damage to the structure.
The event, held in a plaza in front of the castle’s main keep in the city of Kumamoto, explains surveys of damage to the stone walls and traditional wood-joinery repairs. Restoration is expected to finish in fiscal 2052.
The opening day included a flyover by the Air Self-Defense Force’s Blue Impulse aerobatic team. After 11 a.m., six Blue Impulse jets arrived in formation and drew circles of white smoke that spread like flowers across the sky to cheers and applause.
A male visitor in his 50s from Kurume in Fukuoka Prefecture, also in southwestern Japan, said he was amazed at how far restoration had progressed.
Local resident Yoshio Imoto, 74, meanwhile, said the “wonderful” flyover had lifted his spirits after the earthquakes had left him feeling devastated.
The 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes began with a foreshock on the night of April 14 and a main shock before dawn on the morning of April 16, with a maximum reading of 7 on the Japanese intensity scale recorded twice in Mashiki, adjacent to Kumamoto.
© KYODO
