Japan enlists 1,800 people to drag a 360-tonne castle keep using ropes and rollers

The Guardian reports that about one thousand eight hundred volunteers gathered in Aomori prefecture this weekend to shift the three hundred sixty‑tonne keep of Hirosaki Castle a little over two metres using the traditional hikiya method of ropes and rollers. The move, accompanied by chants of “so‑re, so‑re,” is part of ongoing repairs needed after a major earthquake damaged a wall of the historic fortification, and officials say the restoration work will continue.

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