Matsumoto Castle

The five castle keep buildings of Matsumoto Castle were designated National Treasures under the former National Treasures Preservation Law in 1936, and in 1950 they were designated Important Cultural Properties under the Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties. They were then re-designated as National Treasures in 1952, a status they hold to this day. Among castle structures designated as Important Cultural Properties in Japan, only five castles have been designated as National Treasures: Matsumoto Castle, Inuyama Castle, Hikone Castle, Himeji Castle, and Matsue Castle.

The castle keep complex was built in two phases, and there are differences in their architecture and structure. The central keep, the Inui Small Keep at the northern end, and the three buildings connected by a passageway were constructed from 1593 to 1594 by Ishikawa Kazumasa and his son Yasunaga. On the other hand, the Tatsumi Turret attached to the southeast of the keep and the Moon-Viewing Turret were built by Matsudaira Naomasa from 1633 to 1638.

Today, only 12 castles still retain their keep buildings. Of these, only Matsumoto Castle and Himeji Castle have five-story keeps. Only two castles allow visitors to see an actual five-story keep.

Here are some of Matsumoto Castle’s major features:

▶ A flatland castle keep standing amid a magnificent landscape, with the Northern Alps as borrowed scenery
Most of the 12 surviving castles are hilltop castles, but Matsumoto Castle is a flatland castle, with a triple moat surrounding the keep. With the mountains of the Northern Alps in the background as borrowed scenery and the keep reflected in the moat, it offers a spectacular view found nowhere else.

▶ The beauty of the contrast between black and white
The keep’s walls are covered with white plaster on the upper portion and black-lacquered weatherboards on the lower portion. The contrast between the white plaster and black lacquer creates exquisite beauty.

▶ A keep prepared for battle, and a turret for elegant moon viewing
The keep, built at the end of the Warring States period, was later joined by a moon-viewing turret added during the relatively peaceful Kan’ei era. The Moon-Viewing Turret is an elegant, completely unfortified structure, open on three sides with Mairado sliding doors and surrounded by red-lacquered hanging balustrades. Matsumoto Castle is the only castle with a moon-viewing turret connected to the keep, allowing us to see how the meaning of castle keeps changed over time.

▶ Five stories on the outside, six floors on the inside
Although the exterior narrows upward like a layered pagoda, there is an additional floor inside at the third level, hidden from view, like an attic. The same is true of the Inui Small Keep, which appears to have three stories from the outside but actually has four floors inside. This hidden floor is common to keeps called the watchtower style, and Matsumoto Castle’s keep has the structure of the watchtower style while appearing from the outside like a layered pagoda style.

▶ Achieving greater height through through-post construction
The first and second floors are built using through-posts, then the third and fourth floors are stacked on top, followed by the fifth and sixth floors, also built with through-posts. This structure was designed to achieve greater height. Matsumoto Castle’s through-posts can be clearly seen on the third floor of the keep.

▶ Sixteen pillars supporting the foundation inside the stone walls
Inside the keep base, sixteen wooden posts, each 5 meters long and 30 to 40 centimeters in diameter, are erected and connected with horizontal beams, on top of which the keep foundation is laid. It employs a system similar to modern pile construction.

▶ A raft-like foundation beneath the stone walls
When the stone walls on the south and west sides of the keep base were built, timber was laid out like a raft to prevent the corner stones from sinking into the soft ground, and the foundation stones were placed on top of it. This stabilized the stones in the retaining wall.

▶ A forest of pillars from the first to the third floors
From the first to the third floors of the keep, there are many pillars, while from the fourth floor upward the number of pillars decreases and somewhat more open space is created. The lower levels are built with a sturdier framework.