When a historic structure's foundation begins to falter, how do you repair it without damaging the building from the ground up? That's the question Japan had when tasked with repairing the stone walls below Hirosaki Castle. The solution?

Pick it up and move it somewhere else first.

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The castle, which sits within the city of Hirosaki in Aomori prefecture in Japan, was completed in 1611, and the stone walls were reportedly discovered to be leaning after an earthquake in 1983. Fixing the foundation—and any other issues that may have cropped up after the earthquake—is a lengthy process, and it requires the castle to, you know, not be sitting on top of it. Thus the plan to move it.

Using hydraulic jacks that lifted it up two feet, the castle has already begun its move to a temporary location 230 feet away using a dolly system to roll it on over. The moving process began back in August and will finish up in October, taking three months in total. This kind of "pick it up and place it elsewhere" mentality isn't new when it comes to structures, and it's typically associated with homes. That said, it's not often applied to historic Japanese castles.

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The reconstruction of the walls is expected to take 10 years, with the castle returning to its original seat five years into the process around towards Fall 2021.

Source: Washington Post via Gizmodo

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