Kumamoto Castle Tower

~ Conveying the thoughts and history of people who have restored each disaster as a "symbol of reconstruction" ~
The Kumamoto earthquake in April 2016 also caused damage to the Kumamoto Castle tower. In response to the voices of the people who longed for the symbolic castle tower to return to its original form, Kumamoto City adopted a policy of early restoration of the castle tower, and the building was completed in March 2021, incorporating the latest earthquake-resistant technology.
Here, the thoughts of the people who have repaired the castle after repeated disasters over the 400 years since its construction have been inherited, and a message from the people of Kumamoto who live "now" for the next 100 or 400 years into the future. It is

The exhibits are arranged in chronological themes from the basement to the top floor, and the spatial design has been designed to correspond to these themes.
Focusing on the castle tower rather than the castle as a whole, it conveys the history of its construction, architectural design, defensive function, castle and town development, and the thoughts and history of the people who have restored it after each disaster.


[Social Issues/Customer Issues/Requests]
・Communicate the historical, architectural and spiritual significance of the castle tower, which is a symbol of recovery from the Kumamoto earthquake disaster. In addition, it should be communicated that Kumamoto Castle, which has historically been hit by numerous natural disasters, has been revived even in the recent earthquake.
・Focusing on the “Kumamoto Castle Tower” instead of the entire Kumamoto Castle, and working to coordinate and complement the exhibition content and role sharing of the surrounding facilities.
・Since there are many restrictions on the preservation environment inside the castle tower, basically no actual materials will be exhibited, and an exhibition of the history of the Kumamoto Castle tower after the Satsuma Rebellion, which has not existed before, will be added.
・From the perspective of universal design, introduce tactile exhibits and multilingual audio guides so that a wide range of people can enjoy the exhibits.
We have received your request above.


【solution】
With the castle tower as the main character, we arranged the stories from the construction of the castle to the present along the time axis, and set the themes for each era on each floor.
The first floor is the era of Kiyomasa Kato, who built the castle, the era of Hosokawa, who later became the feudal lord, the modern era, which experienced burning down and rebuilding, and the modern era, which is devoted to the Kumamoto earthquake and restoration, from the lower floors to the upper floors. I organized the story so that I could follow it. In addition to the structure of the castle tower, the people who have repaired Kumamoto Castle every time since the Edo period, even after repeated disasters. And so on, I focused on that.
Furthermore, in order to meet the needs of a wide range of visitors, we planned and realized a multilingual audio guide and a tactile model of the castle tower that can be touched and understood.


【customer's voice】
The exhibition is organized in a way that is easy for anyone to understand and attracts interest, such as explanations using models and projection mapping, title signs and multilingual audio guides using apps, and has been well received by visitors.


<Our project members>
[Development] Masanobu Yokoyama
[Sales and Project Management] Masanobu Yokoyama, Haruka Amano, Anjin Sawada
[Design] Mitsuyo Ashida, Yuichiro Tsutsumi, Toshie Makigara, Nanako Kazujun, Yoichi Honda, Naoya Fujiwara
[Modeling] Nobuyuki Endo
[Production and construction] Yu Ikeya, Yoshikazu Kimura