Japan: 1,800 people pull 360-tonne Hirosaki Castle keep by hand

Over 1,800 volunteers gathered in northern Japan over the weekend to manually pull the 360-tonne keep of Hirosaki Castle more than two meters towards its original spot as part of a restoration project. Chanting "so-re, so-re," participants used ropes and traditional Japanese technique called hikiya to move the historic structure in Aomori prefecture.

The keep, a fortified tower within a castle, had previously been moved to allow repairs on a damaged wall following a major earthquake. Teams of 80 people alternated pulling 30-meter ropes attached to the keep, which was placed on rails. On Saturday, they moved the structure 1.13 meters and on Sunday, another 1.09 meters. Kensuke Hayasaka, head of the parks and green spaces division at Hirosaki City, said they received about 8,000 applications for the 1,800 slots, far exceeding expectations.

This effort marked the first citizen-driven hikiya, a method used to relocate buildings without dismantling them, since 1915. Motoharu Nakata, a participant, had previously pulled the castle 11 years ago and said it was moving to participate again. The restoration work, expected to continue until the end of August, involves about 4,100 people moving the keep a total of five meters.

Machinery will then complete the remaining 73 meters by the end of the year. Hirosaki Castle, one of only 12 such structures in Japan, was rebuilt in 1810 after its original keep burned down in 1627.