Matsuyama Castle North Corner Turret

The northwest corner of the ring

Matsuyama Castle North Corner Turret (松山城北隅櫓, Kita Sumi Yagura) is a two-storied wooden turret at the northwest corner of the connected keep compound of Matsuyama Castle in Marunouchi, Matsuyama City, Ehime Prefecture, rebuilt in the late Showa era and entered on the national register as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on September 10, 2019.

Older castle documents give it two further names, Kotenshu Kita-no-Yagura and Inui Kotenshu. The second uses the old compass word for northwest and, like the corresponding name for the south turret, treats the building as a small keep rather than a turret. On the east side it connects directly to the Entrance Tamon Turret, which is how the ceremonial entrance of the keep is reached.

The turret standing there now was built during the reconstruction of the 1960s. Its predecessor, part of the compound completed in 1854, was destroyed in the arson attack of 1933. The Agency for Cultural Affairs gives the construction year as 1967, while Matsuyama City records the completion of the nine rebuilt structures as May 27, 1968.

A reconstruction with documents behind it

The register created in 1996 and the Important Cultural Property designation are two separate instruments. Twenty-one surviving structures at Matsuyama Castle, the great keep among them, hold the designation. Matsuyama Castle North Corner Turret holds the registration, which applies to buildings that contribute to the historic landscape of Japan.

What lifts this particular rebuilding above ordinary replica work is the survey that preceded it. Officials from the Ministry of Education examined the compound in 1933 in connection with the listing under the old National Treasure law, and after the listing was made in 1935 the city asked the ministry to draw up basic designs for the nine buildings lost in the fire. Those drawings, together with their written specifications, were the working documents for the postwar carpenters. Matsuyama City describes the outcome as a faithful reproduction of the building completed at the end of the Edo period, and the phrasing is careful rather than promotional.

What to look for

Approach the compound from the west and the composition becomes obvious. Matsuyama Castle North Corner Turret and its counterpart at the south corner were built to the same 64 square metre footprint, the same two-storey form and the same finishes, then set at either end of the west face with the Ten-Bay Corridor stretched between them. The result is a deliberately symmetrical elevation, unusual in Japanese castle architecture, where asymmetry is more often the rule.

Detail work rewards a slower look. A Chidori-hafu gable rides the west slope of the lower roof. The ground floor is faced with sasarako boarding, horizontal planks pinned by notched vertical battens; the upper floor is plastered in Shikkui and the plaster is carried across the underside of the eaves so that no timber is left exposed. The roof is Hongawarabuki.

Follow the east wall and you meet the Entrance Tamon Turret joining at right angles. That junction is worth pausing at. The corner turret is a defensive block; the building it touches leads to the formal entrance of the keep, complete with a curved gable and family crests. Two very different registers of architecture meet at a single corner post.

Visiting

The interior can be entered as part of the keep compound circuit. Opening hours are 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., extended to 5:30 p.m. in August and reduced to 4:30 p.m. in December and January, with last admission 30 minutes before closing and one annual closure on the third Wednesday of December. Admission is 520 yen for adults and 160 yen for elementary school pupils; the Honmaru courtyard outside is free of charge.

The usual approach is by tram to Okaido, roughly 10 minutes from Matsuyama City Station or JR Matsuyama Station, then 5 minutes on foot to the Shinonome-guchi ropeway station. A return ticket for the ropeway or the chair lift is 520 yen for adults and 260 yen for children, and the walk from the upper station to the ticket office takes about 10 minutes. Those who prefer to walk the whole way should allow 30 minutes from the same starting point. The full visit generally takes about 90 minutes.

Photography for personal purposes is allowed throughout. Live streaming, drones and bulky equipment are not, and commercial shoots require prior application to the Matsuyama Castle office. There is no lift inside the compound and the stairs are steep.