The national important cultural property "Watanabe Residence" in Sekikawa Village, Niigata Prefecture, where part of the building was flooded due to record heavy rain, has almost finished restoration work, and can be visited again from the 8th.
The Watanabe Residence, which is also a tourist spot in Sekikawa Village, is a building built in the Edo period that conveys the lifestyle of a wealthy farmer at that time, and is designated as an important cultural property of the country.
Japan's largest dirt floor with a depth of 30 meters and a width of 4 meters was submerged in the record heavy rain this time, and the building was closed. became.
It was the first time since the Uetsu flood disaster 55 years ago that the Watanabe residence was submerged in water, and this time the water that flowed into the dirt floor and the stuck mud were removed.
A man visiting from Murakami City said, "It's not much different from when I first came here, so I think they made an effort. It's a wonderful facility, so I hope it will continue to exist."
Shinichiro Iura, secretary-general of the Important Cultural Property Watanabe Residence Preservation Society, said, "We're dealing with nature, so there's nothing we can do about it, but we'd like to clean it up little by little so that customers can see how beautiful the dirt floor is." I was.