Le Pays De France - Celestial clean: Japanese duo spruce up world's tallest bronze Buddha

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.

(R.Dupont--LPdF)