1,800 Volunteers Haul 400-Tonne Castle Keep Home Using a Century-Old Japanese Technique

About 1,800 people in Aomori pulled Hirosaki Castle's roughly 400-tonne keep across rails using hikiya — rolling buildings intact rather than dismantling them. The keep was displaced in 2015 for stone-wall repairs; all 2,185 stones were restacked by December 2024. Citizen hand-pulling continues through August; machinery will finish the remaining 73 metres. Reopening is expected in 2033.