15th Century Japanese Toilet Destroyed by Man Supposed To Preserve It

If you drive a manual, forgetting what gear you’re in or what gear you left your car in when you pulled in probably happened to you in the early, novice days. No word if this 30-year-old man was a beginner driver or not, but he forgot that he left his car in reverse, so when he wanted to leave and he hit the gas, he sent the vehicle backwards – and into the cultural heritage site. Which is also Japan’s oldest toilet.

The toilet in question is the communal washroom (tosu) inside the Tofukuji Temple, a Zen Buddhist temple in Kyoto, Japan, which dates back to the 15th century and was in use through to the 19th century. Built to serve the 100 monks on the premises of the temple, it’s a structure that houses round holes for toilets. The hapless driver caused considerable damage to the structure, by driving straight through the double wood door and knocking several support pillars, the BBC reports.

Considering that the man was at the wheel of an old Toyota WiLL Vi, a very special and quite small model designed exclusively for Japan and meant to appeal to the fashionable young millennial, he must’ve floored it pretty hard.

The good news is that the driver was not injured, though he’s probably not feeling very proud of himself: his job is with a company that is meant to preserve cultural heritage sites in the country, and this communal washroom is just that. The other piece of good news is that all damage caused is reparable, though it’s far more extensive than the director of the temple’s research institute imagined it would be.

Repairs will start right away, after a period of damage assessing. The director hopes to complete them by the end of fall, but realistically, work will probably continue through the New Year.

The Toyota WiLL Vi sustained minimal damage, so there’s that silver lining as well.