World Monuments Fund Announces $165,000 Grant to Support Restoration of Sanro-Den of Sukunahikona Shrine in Ozu, Ehime Prefecure, Japan

World Monuments Fund (WMF) announced today a grant to support the efforts of the local community in Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, to restore and preserve Sanro-Den at Sukunahikona Shrine, an example of kake-zukuri style architecture that is most famously seen at Kiyomizu-dera Temple, a World Heritage site in Kyoto. The grant will be announced at a ceremony held at the site on December 21. The sanro-den was listed on 2014 World Monuments Watch as one of 67 buildings at risk in 41 countries and territories. While most kake-zukuri buildings constructed in steep mountain areas were built before the Meiji Period (1868–1912), this sanro-den, built in 1934, is one of a handful from the twentieth century, but has languished for a decade. At the hillside of Mt. Yanase overlooking Hijikawa River, the building stands like a "castle in the air” with modern attributes like transparent glass walls.