Striving to restore their original appearances, many feudal-era castles around Japan are replacing their modern concrete-built main keeps with ones made from timber. 

In bygone days, every castle boasted a donjon, or main keep. But many were torn down under a government edict issued after the Meiji Restoration in 1868 that brought an end to the samurai age.

After World War II, many of those structures were rebuilt, but in concrete.

The towers were symbols of shogunate rule for the entire Edo Period (1603-1867). Himeji Castle in Hyogo Prefecture, which is famed for its magnificent donjon, has UNESCO World Heritage status.

Municipalities with old castles began outfitting their facilities with wooden keeps in the Heisei Era (1989-2019).

Tours of castles with timber-based tower replicas, along with efforts to re-create an authentic feudal atmosphere, helped spur the process.

OLD PHOTOS, MODELS

A paltry 12 castles still boast original wooden donjons dating to the Edo Period. They include Himeji Castle and Matsumoto Castle in Nagano Prefecture.

As such, they are all designated as national treasures or important cultural properties by the central government.

While operators were prone to rely on concrete to bring their old castle keeps back to life shortly after the war, donjons began to be rebuilt with wood as historical accuracy began gaining traction in the Heisei Era.

Ozu Castle in Ehime Prefecture is one such structure. It has a four-tiered, four-storied donjon at the center as well as a kitchen tower and a tower with a characteristic balustrade, both of which are deemed important cultural assets. The castle sits on a hill from which the nearby Hijikawa river can be seen.

After its main tower was demolished in the Meiji Era, the castle languished for decades as little more than a ruin.

Plans were proposed in 1994 to restore the donjon based on photographs taken during the Meiji Era and a wooden model that had remained. 

The remaining challenge was how to build a 19-meter-tall donjon that did not fall afoul of the Building Standards Law, which stipulates that non-fireproof wooden structures should be 13 meters or shorter.

This led to two years of discussions with the prefecture and the state on ways to create a “faithful reproduction of the donjon” that could be treated as an exception under the legal framework.

The project finally got the green light, The tower’s construction was completed in 2004 and opened to the public.

The refurbished donjon is but just the latest in a number of castle projects and has yet to be recognized as a cultural property. But it perfectly fits other components of the castle in appearance.

“It is not a cultural asset currently but the fully replicated tower may be designated as a national treasure hundreds of years from now,” said Yoshie Takenaka, head of Ozu Castle’s management office, referring to her dream.

To capitalize on the restored donjon, the Castle Stay program came into play in 2020. It allows visitors to stay at the main keep like castle lords. Receiving a gun-salute welcome, guests are treated to special dinners that would have been the fare of feudal lords--all for 1.1 million yen ($8,400) a night for two people.

“The package initially targeted inbound tourists,” Takenaka said. “Although the novel coronavirus crisis made trips tough, 17 groups have tried the service so far.”

Rebuilding its wooden donjon in 1991, Shirakawa Komine Castle in Shirakawa, Fukushima Prefecture, played a pioneering role in the latest trend.

Reproducing the three-tiered tower that was destroyed by fire in the Boshin War (1868-1869) was a cherished dream of residents.

Calls for its restoration started to gather pace in the 1970s, but the plan was dropped when Middle East oil shocks hit. Momentum surged again in the latter half of the 1980s, and the locals finally saw their dream come true.

“It was re-created with wood because its actual appearance needed to be faithfully reproduced,” said a representative of Shirakawa city. “We were able to do so because of detailed drawings we had that dated to the late Edo Period.”

AGED CONCRETE TOWERS

The trend now is for concrete reproductions of donjons to be demolished and replaced by traditional wooden ones.

One such project is under way at Nagoya Castle, which was gutted in a 1945 air raid. Another concerns Hiroshima Castle, which was destroyed in the 1945 atomic bombing of the western Japan city.

Thanks to a wealth of detailed design drawings, images and other records, authorities expect the final restoration to be 100 percent faithful to the original castle building.

The fact that old castles are popular tourist spots is not lost on local municipalities in their desire to re-create more faithful replicas. Another aspect is that concrete-made replicas of their predecessors degrade over time.

The donjon of Hiroshima Castle was commissioned by Mori Terumoto (1553-1625). It was later taken over by the Fukushima and Asano clans. The castle continued serving as a symbol of Hiroshima in the Meiji Era and afterward.

The tower was destroyed in the U.S. atomic bombing. The current concrete keep was erected in 1958 to coincide with a grand expo celebrating the city’s recovery.

The structure is already showing its age as more than 60 years have passed since its completion. A key problem is its ability to withstand a strong earthquake.

Given that anti-quake reinforcement work is generally regarded as little more than a Band-Aid, Hiroshima city authorities released plans in spring 2021 to conduct a survey with an eye on wooden restoration.

The municipality is trying to determine if the castle’s stone base is as solid as it looks and is scouring historical records upon which to base the reproduction work.

Keiichi Ohashi, head of a citizens group who champions reconstruction of a wooden donjon at Hiroshima Castle and is also president of the Hiroshima Art Seminary, said replacing the donjon with a wooden one will be as significant as preserving the Atomic Bomb Dome and other such landmarks.

“The donjon is being restored to its former glory to help hand down Hiroshima’s history before the atomic bombing,” said Ohashi, noting that the castle is a symbol of the city’s 400-year-old history.

Nagoya Castle was so admired that the region around the fortress was described as “thriving due to the castle” in a folk song during the Edo Period.

Nagoya Mayor Takashi Kawamura called in 2009 for its donjon to be rebuilt in wood. City authorities plan to submit a blueprint to the state this spring on how to tear down the current concrete tower and replace it with a wooden one on the same spot.

A contractor was selected after a check of the castle’s stone foundations. Work to demolish the existing donjon will begin as soon as the central government gives permission.

The wooden tower that will result is expected to be larger than its counterpart at the World Heritage Himeji Castle.

Tetsuo Owada, chairman of the Japan Castle Foundation, said walking directly on the wooden floors of the re-created donjon, instead of concrete and wearing shoes, will give visitors a real sense of being in an original donjon from olden times.

“Also important is that restoring the wooden structure will help pass down the skills of the carpenters of the traditional buildings and others,” said Owada.

“The many concrete donjons that were constructed after the war were seemingly a necessity of that era, but authenticity will be required from now,” he said. “As long as paintings, photos and other records provide firm historical evidence, wooden replicas should be introduced.”