高さ１２０メートルの牛久大仏で大掃除　作業員２人で担当

【牛久（茨城）ＡＦＰ＝時事】青銅製の仏像としては世界最大の茨城県牛久市の牛久大仏。９日、年に一度の大掃除が行われた。（写真は、牛久大仏を清掃する田口和幸さん〈下〉と箕輪一美さん。茨城県牛久市で）
　牛久大仏の高さは１２０メートルある。米ニューヨークの「自由の女神」像の台座を除いた高さの３倍近くある。
　大掃除を担当するのは、田口和幸さん（５４）と箕輪一美さん（５１）の２人。四半世紀近くにわたり、清掃作業に当たってきた。作業では、高圧洗浄機を使って鳥のふんなどの汚れを落とす。
　田口さんは「誰でもできる仕事ではない。携わることができて光栄」と話す。
　また、作業については「最初は勝手が分からなかった。風が強いと体が流されたり、回転したりといろいろなことがあった。一つ一つクリアしてやってきた」と説明した。
　２人はロープや水の入ったバケツを持って大仏の最上部まで上り、頭部に４８０個並ぶ直径１メートルの螺（ら）髪の間を通り、耳の汚れを洗い落とした。
　牛久大仏の運営管理代表、前川昌弘さんは、一般的なすす払いでは竹ぼうきが使われるが「大仏さまには竹ぼうきでは届かない」と話した。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2024/09/10-17:07）

Emerging from the head of the world's tallest bronze Buddha and climbing down to its right ear, two specialist cleaners gave the imposing Japanese statue an annual spruce up Monday to help it look its gleaming best.
Using high-pressure water guns, the pair blasted dust and bird droppings off the Ushiku Daibutsu monument, which soars skywards over Ushiku city, northeast of Tokyo.
The 120-metre (393-foot) structure is spruced up once a year by the two men, who have been entrusted with the job for nearly a quarter of a century.
It's a very unusual task, one of the veteran cleaners, 54-year-old Kazuyoshi Taguchi, told AFP.
When he and Kazumi Minowa, 51, first took on the annual duty, we had no idea how to clean the statue and faced many difficulties, like our bodies being rolled and blown around by the wind, Taguchi said.
On Monday they carried rope and buckets of water up ladders to the very top of the Buddha, which is three times as tall as the Statue of Liberty without its plinth.
They then descended through the 480 coils of curly hair, each one a metre wide, before blasting a year's worth of white and grey dirt from the statue's ear.
As the city where revered 13th century priest Shinran Shonin is believed to have established the popular Jodo Shinshu sect, Ushiku is an important place for Japanese Buddhism.
Visitors to the monument can take an elevator inside the massive body and peer out of windows at its chest, 85 metres above the ground.
Neither amateur boxer Taguchi nor fishing fan Minowa had a background in climbing, but Taguchi is proud to have carried out the special task -- traditionally known as soot removal -- for such a long time.
Soot removal is an annual event at Japanese temples, where monks and worshippers wipe dust from altars and clean buildings.
Usually we use bamboo brooms, but they are just too small for this Buddha statue, said Ushiku temple representative Masahiro Maekawa.
This event also has the meaning for us of reflecting on the year, and starting a new one with a fresh mindset, he added.