Parts of shrine gate swept by tsunami returned to Japan

Parts of shrine gates have returned to Japan after drifting across the Pacific to the US following the devastating 2011 tsunami, the media reported.

The tsunami swept away the upper parts of the gates, called torii, from a small shrine at a port in Hachinohe city in Aomori prefecture, national public broadcaster NHK reported.

They were found in 2013 about 7,000 km away on the coast of the US state of Oregon.

Toshimi Takahashi, a local fisherman, and another man, donated the gates to the shrine in 1988.

Takahashi's name was written on one, and that helped a group in Oregon figure out how to return them.

Takahashi said he was very moved. He said he will work to preserve the gates if they are returned to their original place in the shrine.

The gates will undergo restoration work in neighbouring Iwate prefecture from Monday. They are scheduled to be reinstalled in the shrine early next year.