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4w ago

Volunteers Pull Hirosaki Castle Keep More Than Two Metres

Community teams used the traditional hikiya method to shift the 360-tonne keep toward its restored stone base while machinery will finish the longer move later this year.

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Hikiya is a Japanese process where buildings are put on rollers and moved, instead of being dismantled and rebuilt | Source: X, @Mayor_Hirosaki
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Overview

  • Over the weekend, about 1,800 volunteers working in rotating teams hauled the Hirosaki Castle keep 1.13 metres on Saturday and 1.09 metres on Sunday for a total of roughly 2.22 metres.
  • The exercise is part of a month-long citizen-led campaign that plans for about 4,100 people to pull the keep five metres by hand before machines complete the remaining roughly 73 metres by the end of the year.
  • Organizers used hikiya, an ancient Japanese technique that places a building on rollers or rails so it can be moved intact, because the keep is a nationally designated important cultural property.
  • The opening ceremony drew Princess Kazuko of Hitachi and the 15th head of the Tsugaru clan, and interest far outstripped places with about 8,000 applications for the 1,800 volunteer slots on the first weekend.
  • Hirosaki’s keep is one of only 12 original castle towers left in Japan and the project follows wall repairs finished in December 2024; the work will keep the site closed to visitors while restoration continues and officials currently expect a long-term reopening timeline.