Manager of Quake-Hit Kumamoto Inn Voices Resolve, Worries

Yatsushiro, Kumamoto Pref., Aug. 5 (Jiji Press)–The manager of Kinparo expressed both resolve and worries after last week’s major earthquake severely damaged the century-old “ryokan” Japanese-style inn in Kumamoto Prefecture, southwestern Japan. Founded in the Hinagu hot spring resort in Yatsushiro in 1910, Kinparo, whose main building and main gate are registered tangible cultural properties of the country, suffered extensive damage in the July 28 quake. The damage is more serious than that caused by similarly powerful twin earthquakes that rocked the prefecture in a decade ago, according to Misao Matsumoto, the 72-year-old manager. While expressing her wish to “rebuild it again,” she said, “I wonder how long it will take to reopen it.” She added, “I wonder if we can reopen it in the first place.” After the 2016 earthquakes, Kinparo took in about 30 million yen in loans for repairs of cracked walls and reopened about a year later. The owner family is still paying their debts. “We’ve worked every day to hear from guests that they were glad to come and would stay again,” Matsumoto said. In the latest earthquake, Kinparo was hit by a violent shaking accompanied by a creaking noise and the sound of breaking glass doors. When Matsumoto managed to see off guests after confirming their safety, she found the entrance and main gate collapsed. The main gate was the “symbol of our ryokan,” Matsumoto said. “I thought it was over.” The corridors heaved and the plaster walls cracked again. Pieces of wood and glass scattered everywhere, and decorations in the great hall collapsed. “The cracks in the walls are getting worse” following aftershocks, Matsumoto said. “We can’t put it away even if we try.” Matsumoto said that Kinparo is her “work and living space as well as the place where I raised children and took care of grandchildren.” The ryokan “must be left” as a valuable cultural property, she added. However, she is concerned that her first son, the fourth-generation head of Kinparo’s operating company, will have to bear the debt for rebuilding. “It’s difficult to strongly urge” him to rebuild it, she said. After the latest earthquake, Matsumoto received encouraging messages from former guests such as “I will stay again.” “If possible, I want to host guests again,” she said. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]