Japan enlists 1,800 people to move 360-tonne castle tower by hand
Teams of around 80 people took turns pulling 30-metre ropes attached to the structure in Aomori prefecture
Nearly 1,800 people have helped move a 360-tonne Japanese castle keep using ropes and rollers.
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Volunteers hauled the historic Hirosaki Castle tower more than two metres as part of a major preservation project.
Teams of around 80 people took turns pulling 30-metre ropes attached to the structure in Aomori prefecture, moving it 1.13 metres on Saturday and a further 1.09m on Sunday.
The castle keep - a fortified tower within a castle - had been shifted from its original site in 2015 to allow workers to repair a wall damaged by a major earthquake.
Rather than dismantling the nationally designated cultural property, officials used hikiya – a traditional Japanese method of moving entire buildings intact.
The building was placed on rollers or rails before being slowly pulled into position.
The castle wall has now been rebuilt, with all 2,185 stones returned to their original locations.
Kensuke Hayasaka, from Hirosaki City’s parks and green spaces division, said demand to take part was far higher than organisers expected.
“We had about 8,000 applications for the 1,800 slots over the last two days, roughly four times oversubscribed, so not everyone could participate,” he told the Guardian.
“Not only from the city, but from across Japan and overseas; a fair number from south-east Asia and from Europe and North America.”
8月28日まで開催される弘前城天守曳戻しイベント「ひっぱれ！けっぱれ！弘前城」のオープニングセレモニーが行われました。セレモニーには常陸宮妃華子殿下がお成りになり、また、津軽家15代当主の津輕 晋様にもお越しいただき約400トンの天守の曳初めが行われました。 pic.twitter.com/4RoOlV07zw
— 弘前市長公式 (@Mayor_Hirosaki) August 22, 2026
Hirosaki Castle’s original five-storey tower was destroyed by lightning in 1627, according to the Japan National Tourism Organisation (JNTO)
The current three-storey keep was rebuilt in 1811.
It is the only Edo-period castle still standing in Japan’s Tohoku region, and was named one of the country’s “100 Fine Castles” in 2006.
Most Japanese castles were dismantled after the end of samurai rule in 1868 or destroyed during the Second World War, with many of those seen today being reconstructed in the postwar period, according to JNTO.