About 1,800 people in northern Japan spent the weekend doing something that sounds like a rejected game-show challenge: pulling a 360-ton castle with ropes.
Rotating teams of roughly 80 volunteers used 30-meter ropes and rollers to move Hirosaki Castle’s historic keep a little more than two meters. The project uses an ancient building-relocation technique called hikiya, allowing the structure to move without being dismantled.
The keep had been shifted so workers could repair an earthquake-damaged stone wall. Officials say 2,185 stones were restored to their original positions before the long process of returning the building began.
Demand to join the human hauling crew was intense: about 8,000 people applied for 1,800 weekend slots. Volunteers are expected to move the keep about five meters by hand before machinery handles the remaining distance, proving once again that people will happily do the impossible if you call it historic preservation.
Facts first. Side-eye included.
DJF separates what is confirmed from what is claimed—and tells you why this particular mess is worth your time.