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Japan's castles are a legacy of the

samurai era to maintain their splendor

they sometimes require intricate repairs

such as moving a heavy key replacing

countless roof tiles or rebuilding walls

made of thousands of stones to preserve

these priceless historical and cultural

treasures requires a huge investment in

April 2016 Kumamoto Castle suffered

heavy earthquake damage restoration work

began soon after this time on Japanese

plus we'll examine the art of restoring

Japanese castles

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hello and welcome to Jaffa knology plus

MP American our theme for today

restoring castles might seem a little

bit richer say in fact Japan does have a

large number of castles and restoration

work is quite common I mean Hirosaki in

almaty Prefecture in the far north of

Japan and the castle here is actually an

undergoing extensive restoration work at

the moment on top of that stone wall

behind me here you would normally expect

to see the main castle building but it's

vanished and we'll tell you where it's

gone in just a little while this is how

a hirosaki castle usually looks the keep

Rises nearly 15 meters above the stone

wall it was constructed in 1810 during

the samurai era as one of japan's few

original castles still standing today it

is a designated important cultural

property

kirisaki castle is surrounded by cherry

blossom trees it's one of japan's most

popular spots for viewing the blossoms

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during the 600 years of the samurai era

many castles were built sadly most were

destroyed as a result of shifting

political fortunes earthquakes and even

air raids today Japan has more than 90

castles with keeps many re constructions

done in the past 150 years nationwide

there are 12 castles whose original

keeps from earlier times are still

standing

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the oldest of these originals were built

around 400 years ago all have undergone

large-scale repairs at some point in

order to preserve their beauty and

historical significance hello hello nice

to see you again nice to see you too I

guess for today is mr. Yoshiki door

sender who's an archaeologist

specializing in castles who was a guest

on this program a couple of years ago

and you're also a member of the

restoration committee for hirosaki

castle I know let's talk a little bit

about what happened to the main castle

keep here which is disappeared from

where it should be a missing keep does

make you wonder but it's in a safe place

let me show you where the keep is now

okay come this way this is the castle

keep Wow

less than a minutes walk away is the

keep what is it doing here actually the

keep normally stands on those stone

walls over there but those walls the one

supporting the keep were damaged in

order to repair the stone walls the keep

was lifted set on Rails and moved 80

meters I mean this is a fairly large

structure and I assume it's pretty heavy

as well how do they do that

they lifted it hydraulically intact as

it was and then moved it the keep of

hirosaki castle weighs about 400 tons in

June 2015 the project to move it began

in earnest

the plan was to lift the keep from the

walls in one piece and move it to a

temporary foundation it was important to

avoid the cherry blossom trees so the

keep would have to change direction

twice on its 80 meter trip even for the

building movers who took on the project

all of them local experts it was a

serious challenge no blueprints of the

keep existed and due to its age many of

its walls and columns had cracks

moreover the entire structure was

leaning by about 30 centimeters without

fixing that first it might fall to

pieces when moved but hirosaki castle is

an important cultural property risking

damage was out of the question

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in July 2015

materials begin arriving on site first

to be delivered are 16 long steel

girders the keep has 11 interior columns

they will be held firmly in place by the

steel girders then the girders will be

jacked up to lift the building but the

other fifty two columns are encased

within walls and cannot be lifted that

way

so the plan is to use z-shaped steel

brackets like this to raise all the

walls at the same time as all the

girders the work of installing the steel

girders begins wooden bumpers prevent

the girders from damaging the wood

columns at this point a problem is

discovered there is not enough space

under the walls for the brackets to be

fully inserted the plan must be changed

I think we'll have to use a claw Jack a

claw Jack can lift a wall even if it

cannot be fully inserted underneath but

these ones operate independently from

the jacks under the girders there are 27

Jack's fitted to lift the columns and

ten independent clawed jacks everything

must be controlled separately if they

are not kept perfectly in sync the key

will break up all the jacks are reached

for remote operation on the left side of

the control panel are the jacks for the

columns on the right the ones for the

walls first the leaning keep is levelled

out this task is carried out by

coordinating with workers inside the

structure

you ready go the hydraulic pressure is

gradually increased in the jags for the

walls and columns

the amount of vertical travel of each

column is monitored with millimeter

precision five to go

five to go okay to lift the key while

simultaneously leveling it out demands

constant split-second decisions about

which jacks to operate the lean is

corrected and the keep successfully

lifted off its foundation by sixty

centimeters without causing any cracks

in the walls or columns now it's time to

move the key

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eighteen dollars under the girders allow

the keep to roll along a set of rails it

is moved in 30 centimeter increments the

direction changes are negotiated

smoothly over a period of two months the

keep travels the 80 meters to its

temporary foundation where it is

successfully fixed in place

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the move of the two-hundred-year-old

castle keep is a success

now the next step of the restoration can

commence fixing the damaged stone walls

so here we are right beside one of the

stone walls over there at the highest

point is the foundation of the keep the

keep stood there now take a look at the

stone wall in front of us here I think

you'll be able to see places where it

needs a repair it's pretty clear that

bit over there is it's quite flat and

straight but it's kind of bulging out

here isn't it the stone walls have

deformed over time originally this

surface was flat but now it has a bulge

I don't think that is due to any

mistaken construction it's probably a

side effect of the original terrain I

think that's the most likely cause

before this castle was constructed there

would have been channels in the ground

little dips or valleys groundwater would

tend to gather in places like that over

time the water would make the soil here

softer than in other locations where the

soil is weak the wall will bulge I think

that's what happened so in order to

restore the wall to its original state

what kind of work has to be done first

we must confirm the condition of the

wall that must be assessed accurately

then each stone will be numbered that

way the original position of each stone

can be tracked then the stones will be

removed one by one every single one yes

stones that are broken will not be

reused they will be replaced with new

ones stones that are still usable

will be returned to precisely their

original locations to make the stone

wall nice and flat again that's what

they'll do any idea

how long and how much money is going to

cost to finish this repair work overall

the work is expected to take seven to

eight years and the estimated cost is

somewhere around two billion yen in fact

another Japanese castle is currently

undergoing restoration of its stone

walls come in a castle in Fukushima in

the 2011 earthquake its walls collapsed

in ten places as of 2016

restoration is ongoing about 7,000

stones fell in all first each one was

photographed from various angles the

photos are compared to photos of the

wall before the quake to determine where

each stone was placed based on this data

a blueprint was made for placing the

stones back to rebuild the wall

artisans Rhys tack the designated stones

carefully adjusting each one's position

to ensure they fit together properly

they can only put back five or six

stones per day on average completion of

the restoration work is projected for

2019 at a total cost of about five

billion yen what other kinds of

restoration projects are going on in

Japan every Castle is different when it

comes to which keeps and watch towers

and gates are original structures and

which are reconstructions numerous

restorations and reconstructions are

always going on Japan's wooden

architecture requires maintenance with

proper upkeep structures can last

centuries or even a millennium without

that care they become dilapidated so

this kind of repair work has been going

on for centuries in fact with the

buildings what kind of repair work is

done himeji castle in he'll go

prefecture is one of the most famous

examples today himeji castle looks

absolutely beautiful that's actually

thanks to large-scale repairs in the mid

20th century the huge main keep of the

castle was entirely disassembled it

completely took it apart yes before the

restoration work began they discovered a

major problem they found that the main

keep was leaning slightly and further

investigation showed that the most

important of its supporting columns was

damaged so the column itself needed to

be removed a complete disassembly was

required and that's what they did when

they take apart a building and then

rebuild it do they rebuild it exactly

the way it was hundreds of years ago

or do they modernize in some instances

each structure that is part of a castle

has its own historical the goal is to

accurately restore each to its

Regional Forum it should be returned to

the way it looked before but Japan is

subject to major earthquakes and even

the best architecture of the samurai era

doesn't measure up to today's seismic

standards it's a constant challenge so

beneath the historical structure itself

a proper anti-seismic foundation is

usually built during the restoration a

solid foundation helps to preserve a

building like himeji castle then it can

serve as a cultural and historical

landmark that can be safely visited by

everyone himeji castle a designated

national treasure and a unesco world

heritage site built 400 years ago the so

called White Heron castle reopened in

2015 after its first major repairs in 50

years

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the castles trademark pristine white

appearance comes from traditionally

plastered walls the plaster is a mixture

of lime seaweed and other natural

ingredients it has a creamy consistency

a major goal of the recent restoration

was cleaning up the damaged exterior

decades of weathering had caused the

plaster to flake off from many of the

castles walls

in 2009 the keep was enclosed in

scaffolding for repairs it was a huge

project that cost 2.4 billion yen first

came an exhaustive inspection of the

keeps walls damage to the plaster was

assessed by tapping it and listening to

the sound damaged plaster was then

stripped off

underneath deep decay was found in the

thick walls of the keeps top floor this

affected even the wooden supporting

lattices so the walls of the top floor

were removed entirely including the

lattices and rebuilt first though came a

tough hurdle the original lattices were

made of slender straight saplings of

hard durable woods like oak and cherry

materials no longer easy to obtain it

took three months to gather enough

saplings 700 were brought to him aji

castle and used to build new supporting

lattices for the keeps top floor over

each lattice claim mixed with straw was

added

then finally it was time to plaster six

coats were applied from the start of

construction it took six years to

complete the rebuilding of the top floor

warns this large-scale repair also

included reroofing the entire keep with

its roughly 75,000 roof tiles every

single tile was removed and inspected

once found to be damaged were replaced

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then the tiles too were freshly

plastered over the plaster holds them in

place preventing them from blowing away

in high winds

this massive project required five years

and 15,000 man days to complete hi I'm

Matt Alt I've always loved building

Japanese model kits Matt drops inna to

tokyo-based maker of plastic models of

course today he's come to see their

castle models ah this must be the

display room yes look at all these

really cool little airplanes and ships

and stuff and here are the castles hello

there

these castles are so cool how many

varieties of these do you sell about 50

different models

is there a large demand for plastic

models of castles in Japan yes they are

popular with all ages from small

children to the elderly

they say that anyone who's ever built

models has put together a castle at some

point Matt is going to build a model of

a huge castle

here's the himeji castle kit let's take

off the lid see what we have inside

instructions can't forget those and

these are the sprues that the parts come

on this looks like the roof and here we

have the base the stone fortifications

that support the castle the kit even

comes with this green powder that

simulates grass and this green foam used

to simulate shrubs and trees so here we

go first comes the painting grassy areas

must not only be painted green but also

sprinkled with this powder made from

sawdust to give texture that

the wall part is painted gray to make it

look like stone

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next up I'm going to paint the roof now

one of the things about himeji castle is

it has a really distinctive white roof

this plastic model however is molded in

gray so you have to kind of add the

color yourself yeah now it's time to

detach the parts and assemble them oh

yes yes yes yes if I do say so myself

and there you have it the central keep

of the castle labor that three hours

later

check it out Himeji Castle in miniature

nice work Matt

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in April 2016 amid a series of major

earthquakes Kumamoto castle was severely

damaged the kief lost its roof tiles

portions of the stone walls collapsed

valuable structures were wrecked

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one Watchtower was left in a very

precarious condition along with 13

important cultural properties the walls

were damaged in 53 places repairs are

expected to cost over 30 billion yen

Kumamoto castle has faced the threat of

destruction many times in its 400 year

history in the 1870s a mystery fire

burned down the keep and other

structures in 1889 an earthquake

collapsed its stone walls and damaged

many watchtowers and other buildings the

castle was not repaired but left to fall

into ruin the keep was not rebuilt until

83 years after it burned down the castle

had been the symbol of Kumamoto for four

centuries many local people wanted to

see it restored and they donated funds

to the project

in 1960 their wishes were realized when

reconstruction was completed ever since

the castle has remained the pride of

Kumamoto but in the recent disaster the

lighting of the castle was damaged it

used to look beautiful at night the city

was robbed of that popular and local

scene the city government received a

flood of requests asking for the castle

to be lit up again even though the

castle is damaged we have received many

requests to restore the lighting our

citizens are eager for Kumamoto castle

to be lit up again they wanted to serve

as a shining beacon a symbol of hope for

the future of this community after being

forced from their homes by the disaster

the many local people living in

temporary housing finally had something

to smile about 45 days after the quake

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soon thereafter work on clearing the

stones from the collapse balls began in

earnest as Kumamoto began its long

journey to recovery

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when we first met two years ago we went

to see Kumamoto castle since then

there's a Miss April there were those

terrible earthquakes and the castle

sustained really terrible damage I

presume you've been there since then yes

I did go and I was shocked at how bad

the damage was

do you think it'll be possible to get

something at least close to what it was

it will be a huge undertaking I do

believe it's possible but until the

stone walls are rebuilt in a way that is

stable and secure the watch towers and

gates and other buildings that stand on

top of them cannot be restored and I

think it will take a very long time to

repair the walls I think it may take

even as long as 20 years but there is

another aspect to this repairs to the

stone walls are required on a vast scale

what that means is that many stonemasons

will have a fresh chance to hone their

skills as they work on repairs to

Kumamoto Castle and that's not all it

will be an opportunity for the next

generation to learn those techniques and

then they will be able to repair other

castle walls around Japan that's what I

hope so you're gonna get a whole new

generation of craftsmen and of course

nobody wants these terrible earthquakes

to happen but as a result of all the

damage if these specialized skills get

passed down to a new generation then

perhaps it wasn't all for nothing or at

least one would like to hope so actually

the stone walls of Kumamoto Castle are

considered by many to be the finest in

all of Japan that's how important they

are

today's stonemasons will be working on

these four hundred year old masterpieces

of stone wall construction they'll be

doing this work with their own hands I

think that restoring the walls to how

they should be is a wonderful challenge

let's wish him all the best of luck

thank you very much thank you

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