Kawamura has first applied for the demolition of the present Main Tower to the Agency for Cultural Affairs while the tower has been closed since 2018. However, the agency has not given him the approval because he hasn’t answered how the stone wall base will be preserved and what the new Main Tower will look like. Their goals are likely completely different. Unless they make a compromise, nothing may happen for a while.
The Small Main Tower (on the left) and the Large Main Tower (on the right)The Main Tower can be seen behind the Honmaru Main Hall
My Opinion
I think Nagoya City should give up the replacement and repair the present Main Tower, because the present one has its own value. It is said that one of the reasons why the present one is made of concrete is that people believed it would never burn down in the future (the main reason was the restriction by the law at that time). A wooden Main Tower would be burned down like Shuri Castle.
The Main Tower (on the left) and the Southwest Corner Turret (on the right)A distant view of the Main Tower
No matter how the wooden one resembles the original one, it is just a replica that people might be bored of soon. In addition, the more similar the replica and the original are, the less useful for general purposes and more expensive for the maintenance they are. If the city can get enough funds for the castle, it should use the money to repair remaining items such as the stone wall base and restore many other buildings that have been lost. This would make people understand what the whole castle looked like.
The ruins of the First Front Gate at the Main EnclosureThe old photo of the First Front Gate at the Main Enclosure (licensed under Public Domain via Wikipedia Commons)
How to get There
If you want to visit there by car: It is about 5 minutes away from Marunouchi Exit on Nagoya Expressway Ring Route The castle park offers parking lots. By train, it takes about 5 minutes on foot from Shiyakusho Station on the Meijo Subway Line. To get Shiyakusho Station from Tokyo or Osaka: Take the Tokaido Shinkansen Super Express, get off at Nagoya Station, transfer to the Higashiyama Subway Line, transfer at Sakae Station to the Meijo Subway Line.