Greeting
Welcome to Matsumoto Castle. I am a volunteer guide for the castle.
I’m just a trainee, so I’m not very good at guiding yet, but I’d appreciate it if you could be patient with me.
Our guided tour takes about 30 minutes and covers only the outside of the castle; we guides are not allowed inside. A tour of the castle inside takes at least another 50 minutes—do you have enough time for that?
I can make the guide tour shorter or longer on your request.
Of course, our guided tour is free of charge. But Castle admission is 1300 yen for adults, and 400 yen for children.
Shall we get started? If you have any questions, please feel free to ask me anytime. I can’t promise to have all the answers, though!
In front of the Black Gate
Here, you can see the Castle, the moat and the Japanese Northern Alps. This combination is very unique in Japan. It’s very good place to take photos.
The Moat
Matsumoto Castle once had a triple moat. Since this castle was a flatland castle, their purpose was defense against enemies.
The outer moat has been filled in now, and only the inner moat and part of the middle moat remain. You can see the middle moat at the front entrance of this castle.
And please look at this inner moat. The widest part of the moat facing the main keep is 60 meters wide, and there is a reason for this.
At the time, muskets were used in battles, their maximum effective range was approximately 60 meters, so the width of the moat was also set at 60 meters.
Furthermore, the walls of the castle keep are approximately 30 centimeters thick to prevent bullets from penetrating them.
The castle walls are coated with black Japanese 漆 lacquer, which protects against fire and water damage. Even today, they are repainted every year as routine maintenance.
In the Warring States period, black was associated with a strong and noble image.
Shachi
Let’s have a look at the top of the structure. You can see one pair of fish-like things. They are called Shachi, guardians of the castle, which are mythical creatures from Chinese legend. They have the face of a tiger and the body of a fish.
It is said that Shachi lives in the ocean, and when they are attacked, they drink a lot of seawater and spout it out at their attackers.
As Japanese castles were built of wood, their worst enemy was fire, so the builders put a pair of Shachi on the roof ridge, hoping that they would spout water to protect the castles from fire. Interestingly, they always come in male-female pairs. Can you tell which is male and which is female?
The key is the direction they are facing. The idea comes from Chinese culture and the principles of Yin-Yang. The males were put on the warm and bright side, while the females were on the dark and cold side. Thus, the males were on the south and east, and the females were on the north and west.
But at Nagoya Castle, it’s exactly opposite.
Masugata
‧This is where you buy your admission ticket. I’ll wait for you over there.
‧Have you got your ticket? You’ll need the ticket to enter the Castle later, so please keep it somewhere safe.
This area is a box-shaped courtyard, or Masugata in Japanese. It was very important for the castle’s defense. As you can see, these two gates are not in line with each other.
So, even if the enemy got through the first gate, they couldn’t go straight through to the next gate. Above, there are many shooting holes for archers and musketeers. These two tactical defenses made this courtyard a kind of death trap, and the attackers would get stuck in the middle, like sitting ducks.
‧Here are two commemorative stamps. Would you like to use them?
‧Here’s a replica of the armor. On the second floor inside the castle, there’s a genuine suit of armor displayed.
Ryozo Ichikawa and Unari Kobayashi
Soon after Matsumoto Castle was completed, Japan entered the Edo period, which lasted for more than 260 years. It was a very stable period. In 1868, the Meiji Restoration transformed Japan from a feudal society into a modern nation.
After the Meiji Restoration, Matsumoto Castle faced two major crises : demolition and disrepair(deterioration). It was able to survive only thanks to the large-scale efforts of the people of Matsumoto, especially these two men, who played leading roles in saving the castle from demolition.
Actually, by the end of the Edo period, there were more than 170 castles in Japan, but in the early Meiji period, more than 150 of them were demolished or sold off by Meiji government order.
Ryozō Ichikawa, a local merchant, heard that Matsumoto Castle was to be sold and demolished. Determined to save it, he organized five exhibitions held in the castle’s main keep, raised funds through public donations. Thanks to his leadership and the support of local citizens, Matsumoto Castle was saved from demolition.
The second crisis came at the beginning of the 20th century.
In spite of the people’s efforts, the castle gradually deteriorated over time, it was in real danger of collapsing.
Unari Kobayashi, the principal of a local middle school, was determined to preserve the castle. In 1901, he established the Matsumoto Castle Preservation Society to raise funds for extensive repairs.
The restoration project known as “The Great Meiji Renovation”. The renovation was completed in 1913, but sadly, Kobayashi passed away the following year.
In front of the Castle
Now you can see the Castle front here.
Matsumoto Castle was built at the end of the 16th century, from (between) 1593 to (and) 1594 – more than 430 years ago by Castle Lord Kazumasa Ishikawa and his son, Yasunaga.
Japan was in its Warring States Periods at that time, and there were many civil wars all over the country, so the castles were built to be as impregnable as possible for war purposes. (Not for living, but fortresses)
Fortunately, however, Matsumoto Castle has never been attacked, so it’s the oldest one in the form of five-story, six- floor castle standing in its original form in Japan.
It is designated a national treasure.
Other national treasure castles are Himeji Castle, Hikone Castle, Inuyama Castle and Matsue Castle.
Matsumoto castle has five structures. Starting from your right, they are the small northern tower, the roofed passage, the main tower (called the Tenshu), the southern wing, and the moon-viewing wing. The southern wing and the moon-viewing wing were added 40 years after the completion of the other three parts when Japan was stabilized. (When stability returned to Japan.)
Actually, the oldest national treasure structures are the main tower, the small northern tower, and the roofed passage.
It’s very rare to see a castle that has different sections built in different times.
Another interesting point is the adjoining moon-viewing wing. All Japanese castles were built just for war purpose in the Warring States Period, so the elegant structure like the moon-viewing wing is very uncommon.
Okayama Castle also has the moon-viewing wing, but it is separate from the main tower.
Looking at the Main Tower
The main tower is about 30 meters tall (29.4 meters, to be exact).
That’s about 100 feet tall.
It appears to be a five-story building, but actually it has six floors.
There is one hidden floor, which you can’t see from the outside.
Nobody knows exactly why, but some think it was for storing weapons.
‧The hidden floor is between the second and third floors.
One roof is a little wider than the others.
Shooting Holes
Take a look at the small holes in the black walls.
They are called shooting holes. There are about 120 in all at Matsumoto castle. There are two shapes of holes: square ones and rectangular ones. The square ones are for musketeers, and the rectangular ones are for archers.
About 50 years before Matsumoto Castle was built (in 1543), matchlock muskets were introduced to Japan by the Portuguese. Soon after that, they spread rapidly through out the country. This changed the style of war. And that’s why Matsumoto Castle has two shapes of shooting holes.
There are 55 square shooting holes and 62 rectangular ones to be exact.
Although the rectangular shooting holes are considered to be used for archers, actually they are used for firing muskets, too only because it would have been difficult to shoot arrows from those small shooting holes.