Sitting atop a building across the Sumida River from the famous Kaminarimon gate in Tokyo's Asakusa area rests a humongous and puzzling golden object.
Some say it is modeled after a tadpole, while others will declare, "It's a cloud!" Still others see it as some sort of beer foam design.
That last assumption might not seem far off, given that the building next door, shaped like a beer mug, is the head office of Asahi Group Holdings Ltd., producer of one of Japan's leading beer brands.
The building that the golden mass sits on is the Asahi Super Dry Hall, and the object has become a common conversation piece for visitors to Asakusa.
"At the time of the 100th anniversary of the company's founding, the hall was built on a site of a former brewery in the hopes of creating something memorable," said 52-year-old Keiichi Imaizumi, an Asahi Group Holdings official in charge of the hall's management. "Including the object, the entire building is a work of art."
The object is titled "Flamme d'Or," which is French for golden flame. Imaizumi said it expressed "the company's burning passion to advance toward the new century."
An inverted black trapezoid of granite supports the flame, modeled in the shape of an Olympic cauldron.
The first three floors of the building accommodate restaurants, and event halls occupy the fourth and fifth floors.
"There is a theory that there were plans to have the flame stand vertically," Imaizumi said. " Actually there are existing blueprints showing it in the opposite direction, but nothing showing it standing vertically."
He added that there remains a sketch showing the flame-shaped object piercing the neighboring head office building.
Produced at a submarine manufacturing plant in Kobe, the Flamme d'Or is 44 meters long and made of steel. It was transported to its current location in sliced ring parts. As it weighs 360 tons, there are three additional support pillars positioned at the bottom of the building.
Maintaining the object's unique curves and lines has been no easy task.
In the past, rock climbers would clean it several times a year with brushes while holding buckets of cleaning liquids.
In 2005, the surface was repainted so that grime would wash away with rainfall, thereby removing the need for manual maintenance work.
For increased safety, the flame's tip is equipped with a heater to prevent potentially dangerous ice chunks from forming and falling down to surfaces below.
The number of visitors to Asakusa and the surrounding area has plunged and remains low due to the novel coronavirus crisis.
"I hope the object will be seen by many people again," Imaizumi said.
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