The Hirosaki Castle Ishigaki Symposium will be held on October 25 at Hotel Naqua City Hirosaki (formerly Best Western Hotel New City Hirosaki).

This symposium is held to deepen understanding of the stone wall repair business of Hirosaki Castle, which is said to occur once every 100 years. Mr. Kosuke Iwai of the Cultural Property Division of the Hirosaki City Board of Education said, “The project has just arrived at the starting point. There are also speculations that the castle will disappear” among citizens, so a place to understand correctly If that happens, "he says.

In this repair, in order to repair the bulge formed on the stone wall under the castle tower, the castle tower will be pulled to the center of the main circle about 70 meters over a period of 3 months. According to Mr. Iwai, it is the first attempt to move the castle tower of an existing nationally designated important cultural property and repair the stone wall (of a nationally designated historic site). The repair business will be a big business for more than 10 years, and the stones in the stone wall will be removed one by one, and a survey will be conducted.

Ishigaki, which is the target of repair, has been repaired 100 years ago. The range is about 100 meters long on the east side of Honmaru and about 10 meters on the south side. About 100 meters to the north of the eastern surface is out of the scope of repair. This stone wall is made by stacking natural stones using a technique called Nozomi Mi, and has not been repaired since it was built 400 years ago.

On the day, Mr. Yoshihiro Senda, President of Nara University, gave a lecture on the theme of "Hirosaki Castle and Honmaru Ishigaki as seen from the history of the castle." Introducing Ishigaki not only in Japan but also overseas, to reconfirm the value of Hirosaki Castle's Ishigaki. In addition, we report the cases of stone wall repairs at three locations from the perspective of the person in charge at the site. Kumamoto Castle has the theme of repair and restoration, and from the perspective of Kanazawa Castle investigating stone walls, Sendai Castle will talk about the stone walls repaired after the Great East Japan Earthquake.

Mr. Iwai said, “It's a great opportunity to get to know not only Hirosaki Castle but also castles and stone walls all over the country. I want to make this repair an event that can be experienced only once in a lifetime.”

In addition to the symposium, the "National Ishigaki Repair Panel Exhibition" will be held from October 24th to 26th at the Hirosaki City Tourist Information Center (Shimohiragincho) Multipurpose Hall. On October 26, a local information session will be held as part of the Hirosaki Castle Honmaru excavation survey.

Holding time is from 13:00 to 17:00. free entrance. No application required.