How Thousands of Japanese Citizens Are Pulling a 400-Year-Old Castle by Hand

In August 2026, thousands of Japanese citizens gathered in Aomori Prefecture to participate in hikiya—the centuries-old engineering art of physically moving massive timber buildings. By tugging heavy hemp ropes in rhythmic unison, community volunteers shifted the 400-year-old Hirosaki Castle keep back onto its original stone embankment following a decade of foundation restoration.

The Ancient Art of Hikiya: Shifting History Without Destruction

The visual is staggering: long lines of volunteers, dressed in traditional coats and hard hats, leaning back in unison while hauling ropes attached to a 400-metric-ton, three-story wooden fortress. Underneath the timber structure, modern steel rails and low-friction teflon plates reduce resistance, allowing human muscle power to move an entire historic landmark millimeter by millimeter.

This method, known as hikiya, dates back to Japan’s Edo period (1603–1867). Rather than demolishing aging structures or taking them apart timber by timber, traditional craftspeople jack up the entire building on wooden frames, place rollers beneath its base, and haul it across land to a temporary staging area.

In 2015, municipal authorities in Hirosaki moved the castle tower 70 meters away from its perch. The reason was urgent: the underlying ishigaki—the mortarless stone wall supporting the keep—was bulging outward, vulnerable to catastrophic failure in the event of a major earthquake. Over the past eleven years, stonemasons painstakingly numbered, removed, repaired, and reassembled over 2,000 volcanic rocks that make up the defense wall. Now, the main keep is returning to its historic roost overlooking Mount Iwaki.

High-Tech Engineering Meets Community Tradition

While modern hydraulic pistons handle the initial lifting and fine alignment, the act of pulling the structure across the final stretch relies deliberately on public participation. City officials invited over 4,000 residents, school children, and visitors to take hold of the towlines during a multi-day festival of collective labour.

"When you pull a 400-year-old tower with your own hands, history stops being a abstract museum piece and becomes something you helped rebuild," said Daisuke Sato, a local schoolteacher who brought his students to the site. The pull moves the building approximately 15 to 20 meters per day, guided by master carpenters known as miyakodai who monitor structural stress points with laser sensors.

Unlike Western masonry castles built with heavy lime mortar, traditional Japanese castles utilize interlinked wooden frames held together by intricate joinery rather than nails. This structural flexibility allows the building to withstand lateral motion during seismic events—and permits engineers to slide the entire frame across ground tracks without causing structural fractures.

Preserving Wooden Heritage in a Seismic Zone

Japan hosts twelve original castle keeps that survived the fires, wars, and rapid modernization of the late 19th and 20th centuries. Hirosaki Castle, constructed in 1611 by the Tsugaru clan, stands as the northernmost surviving keep in the country.

Maintaining these wooden monuments against Japan's frequent seismic activity requires constant innovation. Mortarless stone walls allow groundwater to drain naturally during typhoon seasons, preventing hydrostatic pressure build-up. However, centuries of settling and tremor shocks cause the stone faces to bow outward over time. By combining traditional timber movement methods with modern structural monitoring, Japanese restoration teams have created a model for heritage preservation that avoids intrusive concrete reinforcement.

The multi-billion yen project demonstrates how community involvement directly lowers the psychic distance between citizens and their regional heritage. As the keep settles back onto its newly reinforced stone wall, the town of Hirosaki secures both its iconic winter landscape and a vital lesson in collective civic stewardship.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Japanese hikiya technique used at Hirosaki Castle?

Hikiya is a traditional Japanese engineering method used to relocate entire timber structures without dismantling them. Engineers lift the building onto steel tracks and low-friction plates, allowing it to be pulled across the ground using mechanical jacks and human muscle power.

Why was Hirosaki Castle keep moved away from its original site in 2015?

The keep was moved 70 meters in 2015 to permit workers to rebuild its crumbling stone foundation wall (ishigaki). The century-old stone embankment had bowed outward and posed a severe collapse risk in the event of a major earthquake.

How old is Hirosaki Castle and why is it historically significant?

Built in 1611 during the Edo period by the Tsugaru clan, Hirosaki Castle is over 400 years old. It is one of only twelve surviving original castle keeps remaining in Japan today.