Carpenters working to restore the main hall of Shuri Castle in Okinawa, southern Japan, have completed building the wooden frame, after raising and fitting the ridge beam supporting the roof.

The main hall and five other buildings of the castle were razed to the ground in a blaze in 2019.

Work to assemble a ridge beam connecting to more than 500 wooden pillars and beams has continued since September.

Carpenters on Monday used a crane to lift four pieces of timber and place them just under the roof. The timber was procured in the prefectures of Aichi and Shizuoka in central Japan, and Okayama, western Japan.

Traditional architectural techniques were employed to interlock the wooden pieces without the use of nails.

The workers completed the assembly of the ridge beam, which is 21.5 meters long and weighs 1.5 tons.

Okumura Koji heads the reconstruction of the main hall. He said he is relieved that the work was completed before the end of the year.

He said that the carpenters worked really hard to make this happen.

He added that from now on, the reconstruction work will be quite visible to the public, and he said he hopes to restore the castle to its original magnificent state.

The rebuilding of the main hall is scheduled to be completed in 2026. Work to install roof tiles and apply coating is to begin around June next year.