ONOMICHI, Hiroshima -- A well-known four-story building known as "Onomichi Castle" appears to be destined for demolition.
The building, located on a slope near the center of Onomichi, has been popular part of the city's landscape for more than half a century. Due to its age and condition, however, the city government has decided to spend about 200 million yen to transform the site into an observatory.
The castle-shaped landmark is not a historical structure, but a steel-reinforced former private museum mocking a castle tower. It is built on the hillside of Mt. Senkoji near JR Onomichi Station, where you can overlook the Onomichi Channel of the Seto Inland Sea.
Movie director Nobuhiko Obayashi, a native of the city, made a film featuring his hometown, in which the "castle" appears.
The 27-meter castle lookalike was built in 1964 by a local, traditional Japanese hotel owner to revive the tourism industry. Dolls of warlords and models of famous castles from around the country were once exhibited there. However, it was closed in the 1990s after the collapse of the bubble economy.
In recent years, it has begun to look like an abandoned castle. And one of the pair of shachigawara, orca-shaped ornaments, has fallen off.
While tourists have posted about its eye-catching appearance on social networking sites, the city assembly and other bodies have pointed out the hazard of the aging structure in terms of disaster prevention. There have also been a number of opinions saying, "It interferes with the view" or "It may make people misunderstand Onomichi to be a castle town," calling for measures.
The city government had long kept a wait-and-see strategy, saying, "Its owner should take responsibility to deal with it." But it decided to demolish the building at public expense after receiving donations from the operator, who owns the building and land, and because the central government is expected to provide about 90 million yen for the construction of the area.
The city government plans to build a wooden observation deck on the site in fiscal 2021. Senkoji Park, a famous cherry blossom spot, is located near the summit of the mountain, and an official of the city's urban development division said, "We want to make them integrated."
Yomiuri file photo
"Onomichi Castle" is familiar to Hiroshima residents. This photo was taken in Onomichi in January 2020.
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