this castle appeared in many japanases drama like Atashinchi no Danshi ,yukan club and finally Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge
Scottish Castle in Takayamamura
Lockheart Castle, located outside the village of Takayamamura in rural Gunma Prefecture. The castle was constructed in Scotland and then transported to Japan and rebuilt here.
"The history of the Lockheart family stretches back 670 years to the time when they were made knights by Robert Bruce, the hero of Scotland's independence from England, and the name has continued in Scotland since then. Lockheart Castle was built about fifty kilometers south of Edinburgh in 1829, when England, during the industrial revolution, was accumulating the wealth of the world and was the most prosperous country in history."
"In 1988, with the approval of then-General Secretary of the Soviet Union Gorbachev, thirty containers were transported along the Trans-Siberian Railway and arrived safely in Japan in December of that year. Then, after three years of work and the involvement of 15,000 construction workers [!] and the resolution of many difficulties, the Marble Village was created on April 6, 1993. This is the first time that a European castle has been moved to japan and rebuilt, and it represents the fulfillment of a dream for actor Masahiko Tsugawa and for Yoshiaki Hirai."
The "Marble Village" referred to on the official web site is essentially a collection of shops selling things made of stone, like stone turtles, stone eggs, and so forth. Masahiko Tsugawa is a famous Japanese film actor who is familar to many Western audiences because of his roles in many films of Juzo Itami, such as "A Taxing Woman" and "Tanpopo." It seems that he found the castle in a dilapidated state and had the idea to bring it back to Japan. Yoshiaki Hirai is the president of the company that owns the castle.
Lockheart Castle is, of course, another artifact of the Japanese asset price bubble of the 1980s. Like the German Village, the site is quite isolated, and also like the German Village the expense incurred to create this tourist attraction seems entirely out of proportion to the likelihood that any large numbers of people will actually visit it. It does make a great wedding venue, although I imagine that most of the weddings are of local couples In short, it is a reminder of those years when Japan was literally (if ephemerally) rich enough to buy the rest of the world and everything in it. This is one piece of the world that will be a part of Japan forever.
