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421-year-old Japanese restaurant taps crowdfunding to fix roofing

Hiroyuki Shibayama, the 14th-generation proprietor of Chojiya, poses in front of the centuries-old Japanese restaurant in Shizuoka, on Aug. 2, 2017. (Mainichi)

SHIZUOKA -- A centuries-old Japanese restaurant here whose signature dish called "tororo-jiru" (grated yam soup) was depicted in famous ukiyoe woodblock printing and literature, has launched a crowdfunding campaign to repair its thatched roofs.

    Established in 1596, the beloved eatery, Chojiya, in the city of Shizuoka's Suruga Ward aims to raise 10 million yen to rethatch its roofs for the first time in about 40 years. The move is part of an effort to "preserve a world depicted in ukiyoe," while many other traditional establishments that used to line posting stations along old highways vanish.

    Chojiya appears in a number of art works, from Utagawa Hiroshige's "Tokaido Gojusantsugi" (Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido) ukiyoe series, to works by haiku legend Matsuo Basho and popular author Jippensha Ikku.

    "I believe ours is the only restaurant that operates even today among those depicted in 'Tokaido Gojusantsugi,'" said Hiroyuki Shibayama, 38, the 14th-generation proprietor of Chojiya.

    "I would like to pass down the landscape here to future generations, in a manner as sticky as grated yam," he quipped.

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