Matsuyama Castle Taiko Gate North Adjoining Turret

A building rebuilt from the evidence of stones

Matsuyama Castle Taiko Gate North Adjoining Turret (松山城太鼓門北続櫓, Taiko-mon Kita Tsuzuki Yagura) is a single-storey wooden turret extending north from the Taiko Gate in the main enclosure of Matsuyama Castle in Marunouchi, Matsuyama City, Ehime Prefecture, rebuilt in 1972 and entered on the national register as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on December 3, 2024.

Its history sets it apart from the three structures registered with it. The gate, the south turret and the Taiko Turret all burned in the air raid of July 26, 1945. This turret was already gone by then. Matsuyama City records only that it had been lost before the war, without a date, and no photograph or drawing of it survived.

What the city had instead was the ground. The shape of the rampart, the worked upper surface of the coping stones along its edge, and the stone steps in the vicinity all indicated that a turret had once stood there. On that reading the building was reconstructed in 1972, its external design matched to the south turret so that the two wings of the gate would read as a pair. The floor area is 19 square metres, the smallest of the sixteen registered structures at the castle after the Entrance Hall.

An inference, declared as one

The Important Cultural Property designation at Matsuyama Castle applies to twenty-one surviving structures. This turret is a reconstruction, and one built from inference rather than from records, so the register created in 1996 is what covers it, for works contributing to the historic landscape of Japan.

The interesting point is that the reasoning was written down. Rather than presenting the turret as a recovered original, the Agency for Cultural Affairs and Matsuyama City both state in their descriptions that the building had already been lost, that its former existence was judged from the masonry and the steps, and that the elevation was matched to the neighbouring turret. A visitor is told what is evidence and what is supposition. That candour is unusual in castle reconstruction and is worth knowing before you look at the building.

What to look for

Compare it with the south turret first. The two are deliberately alike in finish: sasarako boarding at the base of the wall, Shikkui plaster above and carried across the underside of the eaves, a ridge running north and south in Irimoya-zukuri continuous with the roof over the gate, tiled in Hongawarabuki. The likeness is a design decision of 1972, not a survival, and knowing that changes how you read it.

The differences are in the details that the ground could settle. This turret is smaller, 19 square metres against 24. Its doorway is on the north wall rather than the west. Only part of the east wall, the side facing outward, is built as a taiko wall, the double skin packed against musket fire, and it carries loopholes for firearms alone rather than the mixed set of arrow and musket openings on the south turret.

Inside, as in the gate, no ceiling was fitted, leaving the roof frame, rafters and boarding in view. The interior is closed to visitors, but Matsuyama City has published photographs of it.

Visiting

Matsuyama Castle Taiko Gate North Adjoining Turret stands outside the ticketed area and can be seen at no charge from the Honmaru courtyard, which is the side it faces. The interior is not open. Because the turret sits behind the gate on the courtyard side, it is easy to walk past on the way up; look back after passing through the Taiko Gate.

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

The ropeway runs from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., with seasonal variation, and the Taiko Gate is opened and closed at set times. Personal photography is unrestricted; live streaming, drones and large equipment are prohibited, and commercial shoots require prior application to the Matsuyama Castle office.