Kumamoto Castle Tower

~ As a "symbol of reconstruction," conveying the thoughts and history of people who have repaired after each disaster ~
The Kumamoto earthquake in April 2016 also caused damage to the castle tower of Kumamoto Castle. In response to people's longing for the castle tower to be restored to its original form, the city of Kumamoto made it a policy to restore the castle tower as soon as possible. The building was completed in March 2021 with the latest earthquake-resistant technology.
In the 400 years since the castle was built, the wishes of the people who have repaired the castle each time there has been a repeated disaster have been carried over, and the message from the people of Kumamoto living in the present for the future of the next 100 to 400 years is contained.

At displays, we organized themes in chronological order from the basement to the top floor, and created a space that is easy to understand and impressive through the use of models, videos, and wall concept design, as well as the spatial concept design corresponding to the themes.
Focusing not on the castle as a whole but on the castle tower, it conveys the history of the castle at the time of its construction, its architectural design, its defensive functions, the development of the castle and the town, and the thoughts and history of the people who have repaired it every time they have suffered disasters.


[Social Issues/Customer Issues/Requests]
・To convey the historical, architectural and spiritual significance of the donjon, which is a symbol of recovery from the Kumamoto earthquake. It is also important to communicate that Kumamoto Castle, which has historically suffered from numerous natural disasters, has been revived again after the earthquake.
・Focusing not on Kumamoto Castle as a whole, but on the castle tower of Kumamoto Castle, the division of roles and coordination and complementarity with the contents of displays of surrounding facilities should be sought.
・Because there are many restrictions on the preservation environment in the donjon, displays of the actual materials was not carried out, and the historical displays of the donjon of Kumamoto-jo Castle after the Seinan War was added.
・From the perspective of Universal concept design, we will introduce interactive displays and multilingual audio guides so that a wide range of people can enjoy displays.
We received the above request.


[Solution]
With the castle tower as the main attraction, the story is organized along a time axis, from the castle's construction to the present, and each floor has a theme for each period.
On the first floor is the period of Kato Kiyomasa, who built the castle, and the Hosokawa period, who later became the lord of the domain, the modern period, which experienced a complete fire and reconstruction, and the present day, which is devoted to the Kumamoto earthquake and its restoration. The story is arranged so that you can follow the period from the lower floor to the upper floor. In order to convey the strong will of the people who have repaired the castle tower every time there has been a series of disasters since the Edo period, "I want to restore Kumamoto Castle and pass it on to future generations." the film focuses on the castle tower.
In addition, to cater to a wide range of visitors, we planned and realized multilingual audio guides and tactile models of the castle tower.


[Customer Comments]
displays is organized in a way that is easy to understand and attract the interest of anyone, such as explanations using models and projection mapping, and multilingual audio guides using title signs and apps, and has been well received by visitors.


< our company Project Member >
[Development] Masaaki Yokoyama
[Sales/Project Management] Yokoyama Masaaki, Amano Haruka, Sawada Anjin
[design, layout] Mitsuyo Ashida, Yuichiro Tsutsumi, Toshie Makigara, Nanako Wajun, Yoichi Honda, Naoya Fujiwara
[Design] Nobuyuki Endo
[Production/construction] Ikeya Yu, Kimura Yoshikazu