When you look at the photo above, you can’t help but think it looks like one of those sliding puzzles wherein you have to rearrange the pieces to restore the image to its original order.
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However, it’s not a puzzle, but the ceiling art of Suwajinja shrine’s worship hall. For almost 60 years, the pieces have stayed in disarray causing the chief priest, Shoko Koshiba, to constantly feel as though something is not right with it whenever she looked at it, but she just couldn’t put her finger on what. Until a few researchers from the Institute of Technologists in Gyoda, Saitama Prefecture, visited the shrine to study the worship hall.
Given the perfect timing, Koshiba asked Shinichi Yokoyama, professor of historic architecture studies about the ceiling art. True enough, the fifteen pieces were all in the wrong place. Of course, the reason why it got like that was because of a storm that blew the roof off the shrine in 1966, when Koshiba’s grandfather was still chief priest.
Having no reference photos or any witnesses to the original order of the tiles, Koshiba had no idea how to put them back. With some help from Yokoyama and his lab, they were able to solve the puzzle after six months, and even learned a bit of history about the tiles themselves.
Apparently, 9 of the 15 tiles had been donated by parishioners of the shrine in 1862, as a token of gratitude for being able to arrive safely at another shrine in Mie Prefecture.
(Image credit: Yokoyama Lab)
Source: neatorama