About 1,800 volunteers in Hirosaki, Aomori prefecture, pulled the 360-tonne keep of Hirosaki Castle more than two metres toward its original base using the traditional hikiya method over a weekend. Rotating teams of 80 people heaved on 30-metre ropes while the keep, set on rails, moved 1.13 metres on Saturday and 1.09 metres on Sunday. Officials said the move was needed so workers could repair a wall damaged in a major earthquake; crews had already restacked all 2,185 stones of that wall in December 2024. Kensuke Hayasaka, head of Hirosaki City’s parks and green spaces division, said organizers received about 8,000 applications for the 1,800 slots, with participants coming from across Japan and overseas. Motoharu Nakata, 61, who traveled from Hiroshima, said he had pulled the keep 11 years ago and found it “very moving” to take part again. Hand-pulling will continue through the end of August with about 4,100 people scheduled to move the keep a total of 5 metres; the remaining roughly 73 metres will be completed by machinery by year-end. The keep is one of 12 surviving castle keeps in Japan and the only one in the Tohoku region; officials expect the keep to be covered for preservation work and to reopen to visitors in 2033.
