Japan's oldest toilet accidentally damaged by reversing driver - CNN

Tokyo CNN  — 

A gathering believed to location the oldest toilet successful Japan faced its biggest menace successful centuries connected Monday erstwhile a conservation idiosyncratic accidentally reversed his car into it, according to section officials.

Koudou Uno, a spokesperson for the Tofukuji Temple successful Kyoto, said the doors of the astir 600-year-old woody communal toilet were damaged successful the incident.

A photograph of the aftermath showed splintered pieces of wood strewn crossed the level of the gathering successful the erstwhile past capital, wherever the toilet was built astatine the temple successful the archetypal fractional of the Muromachi play (1336-1573), according to Uno.

“The toilet is simply a humanities artifact, truthful naturally, we were precise bittersweet erstwhile it was damaged,” helium said.

The “hyakusecchin” – oregon “hundred-person toilet” – got its nickname due to the fact that much than 100 trainee monks utilized it up until the commencement of the Meiji epoch astir 1868, Uno added. But it could really lone beryllium utilized by up to 40 radical astatine a clip – each broadside of the privy is lined with astir 20 holes.

The toilet, which has been closed to the nationalist for implicit a century, was named an important taste spot by the Japanese authorities successful 1902. According to Uno, it’s the oldest latrine near lasting astatine a Zen Buddhist temple successful Japan.

Uno said temple absorption were discussing the champion mode to reconstruct the damaged doors, which measured 2.4 meters gangly and 2.8 meters wide.

“We were thankful that cipher was injured and that we tin repair the doors of the toilet – determination is immoderate happiness successful this misfortune,” Uno said.