Matsuyama Castle Taiko Turret

Two storeys on an irregular plan

Matsuyama Castle Taiko Turret (松山城太鼓櫓, Taiko Yagura) is a two-storied wooden corner turret standing on the high rampart at the southwest angle of the main enclosure of Matsuyama Castle in Marunouchi, Matsuyama City, Ehime Prefecture, rebuilt in the early 1970s and entered on the national register as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on December 3, 2024.

It sits west of the Taiko Gate, on the highest stretch of masonry on the hill, where the southern face of the main enclosure reaches roughly 17 metres. At 99 square metres it is the largest of the four structures registered together in 2024, and larger than the small keep in the compound above.

The building was listed under the old National Treasure law when it burned in the air raid on Matsuyama of July 26, 1945. Accounts of the rebuilding differ by one year: the Agency for Cultural Affairs records the construction date as 1973, as does the chronology published by the Matsuyama Castle office, while the description on the Matsuyama City cultural properties page gives 1972. Both refer to the same reconstruction, carried out in timber.

Why it was registered

Twenty-one structures at Matsuyama Castle hold the Important Cultural Property designation, which is confined to buildings that survived. The Taiko Turret did not, so the register created in 1996 applies, covering works that contribute to the historic landscape of Japan.

The four structures around the Taiko Gate were registered as one group on December 3, 2024, and the reasoning applies to each: buildings believed to date from the founding of the castle were destroyed by war damage, and Matsuyama City rebuilt them in timber from surviving records rather than in reinforced concrete, which was the common answer at the time. Of the four, this turret is the one that carries the silhouette. It is what people see from the city below.

What to look for

The plan is the first thing to understand, because nothing about this building is rectangular. The lower storey follows the line of the masonry beneath it and is irregular in shape as a result, bending where the rampart bends. The upper storey sits on the southwest angle of that irregular base, its ridge running north and south, and is irregular in its own right. Seen from different points on the approach, the turret appears to change proportion.

A chidori-hafu gable, a triangular dormer set directly on the roof slope, sits towards the south end of the west face. Above it the upper roof is Irimoya-zukuri running north and south, while the lower roof takes hip-and-gable form on the north and east sides, all tiled in Hongawarabuki. Stone-drop hatches are set at the southwest angle of the lower storey and at the north end of the west face.

On both storeys, the south and west walls, the sides that faced an enemy, are built as taiko walls, double skins packed against musket fire, with square and rectangular loopholes cut through. Shutter windows, hinged at the top and propped open from below, appear on the south and west of the lower storey and on three faces of the upper. Inside, no ceiling boards were fitted, so the roof frame stands exposed; Matsuyama City describes the effect as showing the plainness of a building made for fighting.

For the long view, the Ninomaru Historic Garden at the foot of the hill gives the standard composition of three buildings on the skyline. The rightmost is Matsuyama Castle Taiko Turret.

Visiting

Matsuyama Castle Taiko Turret is outside the ticketed area and can be seen without charge from the Honmaru courtyard and from the approach below. The interior is not open to visitors. On Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays a drum is beaten at the castle in the morning to mark the opening of the keep.

From the upper ropeway and chair lift station at Chojagadaira, the walk by way of the Tonashimon, the Tsutsui Gate and the Taiko Gate takes about 10 minutes. From the Ninomaru side, the Kuromonguchi approach climbs on stone steps to the courtyard in roughly 40 minutes. Ropeway and chair lift share a return ticket at 520 yen for adults and 260 yen for children, and the keep compound beyond charges a separate 520 yen and 160 yen.

Ropeway hours are 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and the keep opens 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., with seasonal variation in August and in December and January. Photography for personal use is unrestricted; live streaming, drones and large equipment are prohibited, and commercial shoots require prior application to the Matsuyama Castle office.