WHEN Tokugawa Ieyasu, who founded the Tokugawa shogunate in 1603, had feudal lords build castles across the nation, Nagoya Castle was one of them. The castle tower was rebuilt using reinforced concrete after WW2.
This spring, the Nagoya municipal government started a project to rebuild it using wood, which is how it was originally built. This would be an accurate restoration based on historical documents and may cost up to ¥50.4bil (RM1.9bil)
However, the Cultural Affairs Agency, which has the final say over the project, is cautious about preserving what historical areas of the castle remain. It is expected the project will face many hurdles.
Nagoya Castle was completed in 1612 and became the first castle designated as a national treasure in 1930. Its tower was 36m high and the total floor space was about twice that of Himeji Castle in Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture.
But Nagoya Castle burned down after a wartime air raid by the US military in 1945.
After the war, it was reconstructed in 1959 using contributions from citizens.
The castle, including the towers stone-walled foundation, was designated by the central government as a special historical site.
Plans to restore the castle tower using wood first surfaced in 2009. In response to the castle tower’s degradation over time and its insufficient earthquake-proofing, the Nagoya government considered conducting repairs. The municipal government finally decided on a restoration project using wood, which has a longer lifespan than many other materials but costs more, as they found that even if they spent 2.9 billion yen (RM113mil) reinforcing the existing structure, the castle would last only about 40 years.
As detailed historical documents regarding Nagoya Castle remain, such as a document about castles built during the Edo period called Kinjo Onkoroku and Showa Jissokuzu survey drawings compiled by the municipal government after the castle was designated a national treasure, the municipal government says it can accurately recreate the original castle.
However, many issues remain with reconstruction.
Discussions with the Cultural Affairs Agency will inevitably be difficult as changing the current form at a special historical site must be premised on a re-creation that is faithful to historical facts while also preserving the site’s remaining structure.
The Kumamoto Earthquake in Kumamoto last year caused the collapse of Kumamoto Castle’s stone walls. Consequently, the Nagoya municipal government is going to examine Nagoya Castle’s stone walls to see how durable they are.
The municipal government holds that the dismantling and replacement of the castle tower can be done without damaging the stone wall, and hopes to conclude discussions with the Cultural Affairs Agency in one-and-a-half years.
But an official of the agency says: “What is important is that the stone walls and moats are from the time of the castle’s initial construction. Deliberations will be held as many times as needed to prevent these from being damaged during construction work.”
Therefore, the project cannot be anticipated to be completed by December 2022, which is the aim of the municipal government.
Another focal point is whether the enormous project costs can be covered only through admission fees, as the municipal government’s revenue and expenditure plan stipulates. The municipal government holds that the 1.7 million visitors to Nagoya Castle in 2015 will increase to 4.5 million in 2023 after restoration is completed, and around three million people will continue visiting annually for over 40 years thereafter.
However, even at Himeji Castle, a Unesco world heritage site, there was a steep decline in visitors in 2016, a year after large-scale repairs.
The municipal government claims Nagoya’s location between Tokyo and Osaka makes it possible to attract visitors but the local assembly is sceptical.
Solely prioritising the municipal government’s ambition to make Nagoya Castle a centrepiece of tourism promotion would mean losing sight of the essential goal to preserve cultural assets. An overly optimistic vision of Nagoya Castle’s restoration should not be seen as a fait accompli and impose a burden upon future citizens.
Across the nation, castle towers that were reconstructed using concrete and have been cherished as symbols of communities are almost at the point where they need to be rebuilt.
“I hope they return to the original point of Nagoya Castle being the property of the people,” said Prof Yoshihiro Senda of Nara University, who specialises in castle archaeology.
As the castle popularity continues to grow, the Nagoya municipal government must go through a process of information disclosure, which could then become a model case for other municipalities considering restoration projects.
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