The Hirosaki Castle Snow Lantern Festival was held on February 8th in Hirosaki Park (Shimohiragincho, Hirosaki City), and projection mapping by citizen groups began.

The festival is lined with snow lanterns and snow statues of various sizes made by citizens. The heavy snow statue of a historic building in Hirosaki is made every year, and projection mapping began in 2014. The heavy snowflakes are produced by the JGSDF Hirosaki garrison staff, and the projection mapping is handled by the citizen group "Payaparaborabori" (Payarabo).

This year's theme was the Hirosaki Kosei Gakuin Memorial Hall (former Hirosaki Kyosha, Miyuki Town), a nationally designated important cultural property. The building was designed by Sakichi Horie, a carpenter who came from Hirosaki. Horie is working on Hirosaki's historic buildings such as the former main bank of the 59th Bank (former Nagacho) and the former Hirosaki City Library (Shimohiragincho).

It was built in 1907 (Meiji 40) as a meeting place and social gathering place for Army officers of the 8th Division of the Old Army, and is now the school building of the same institute. Repair and restoration work started in 2014 (Heisei 26), but it is not currently used, but it will be reopened in April 2020 (Reiwa 2).

The projection mapping is a projection of about 5 minutes on a heavy snow image about 18 meters wide and about 7 meters high. On the entrance porch pediment, there is a bee decoration that is said to have fiddled with the "eight" of the Eighth Division, and the scene in which the bees fly around is depicted in the video.

Kaoru Kasai, the video creator in charge, says, "I'm happy that everyone can enjoy the winter snow festival and also think about the history and background of the historical buildings that remain in Hirosaki."

The Hirosaki Castle Snow Lantern Festival is open until February 11. The projection mapping time is from 18:00 to 20:30. Screen every 30 minutes. free entrance.