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

To display this content from YouTube, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement. One of your browser extensions seems to be blocking the video player from loading. To watch this content, you may need to disable it on this site. Cover image: Japan castle keep © France24, AFP 00:48 Issued on: 25/08/2026 - 18:33 About 1,800 people came together in northern Japan to pull a 360-tonne castle keep by hand. The Hirosaki Castle keep was moved in 2015 so its earthquake-damaged stone wall could undergo repairs. Now, using hikiya, a technique that places buildings on rollers so they can be moved without dismantling them, the keep is being brought closer to its original position. Those taking part were selected through a lottery system. Moving efforts will continue until the end of August. Keywords for this article