Photo/Illutration Junichi Mizuno, left, descends from the top of Sendai Daikannon’s head with his eldest son, Hiroki, during renovation work in Sendai’s Izumi Ward on June 17. (Hideaki Ishibashi)

SENDAI—Suspended by ropes, repair workers rappel down and across the shiny white face of a 100-meter-tall standing Buddhist statue here.

The specialized high-altitude conservators do not use scaffolding for the work.

Instead, they stabilize their bodies with the help of electronic suction cups, drive climbing anchors into the reinforced concrete, and move like “Spider-Man” along high-strength lines hanging from the top of the head.

The towering statue, Sendai Daikannon, in Izumi Ward here is undergoing its first full-scale refurbishment since it was set up in 1991 by a businessperson who made a fortune through the development of a nearby town.

Climbing Works Inc., from Oiso, Kanagawa Prefecture, close to Tokyo, started the repair work in spring.

Sendai Daikannon suffered no serious damage in the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami in 2011. But cracks have become increasingly noticeable in recent years.

The Climbing Works conservators have filled up the cracks with mending material, but linear traces remain all over the Kannon figure.

The next step is to remove dirt via high-pressure washing, followed by priming and topcoating. Those procedures are expected to continue until the end of the year.

Junichi Mizuno, 53, president of Climbing Works, said he has been good at climbing trees and rock walls since childhood.

“I have always had acrophilia,” Mizuno said.

He started his vertical-oriented career by working part time as a window cleaner on high rises.

He became independent in 2007, and now works with his eldest son, Hiroki, 24, at Climbing Works.

The company has also been involved in the refurbishing programs of the 73-meter-tall Kaga Daikannon statue in Kaga, Ishikawa Prefecture, and the 57-meter-tall Aizu Jibo Daikannon in Aizu-Wakamatsu, Fukushima Prefecture.

Climbing Works, which does not use work platforms or heavy machinery, bills itself as the least expensive conservatory company.

According to standard construction estimates, the work on Sendai Daikannon would normally cost hundreds of millions of yen (millions of dollars).

Climbing Works is undertaking the project for 50 million yen.

“I get turned on by what has yet to be done by anyone else,” Mizuno said.

He said he wants to work on the 70-meter-tall Tower of the Sun artwork building in Osaka Prefecture’s Suita as well as giant sculptures outside Japan.

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