To Move Castle, Japan Brings Out the Ropes

Japan just staged the world's slowest tug-of-war: on one side, an army of people; on the other, a 360-ton castle. Over the weekend, a crowd of 1,800 in Aomori prefecture pulled the three-story keep of Hirosaki Castle a little more than six feet using dozens of long ropes, chanting in unison as the structure inched along rails, per the Guardian. The building was shifted in 2015 so workers could rebuild an earthquake-damaged stone wall, reassembling all 2,185 stones in their original spots.

Now the keep is being hauled back using "hikiya," an old Japanese method of sliding intact buildings on rollers. There was huge demand to join the effort: some 8,000 people applied for the 1,800 slots, with some traveling across the country for the "opportunity to pull a castle." More than 4,000 people, selected by lottery, will help move it about 16 feet over the next week before machines put an end to the community-building exercise, per Japan Today. The 19th-century keep, a major cherry-blossom draw, isn't expected to reopen until 2033.