Matsuyama Castle Tamon Turret

The south link of the ring

Matsuyama Castle Tamon Turret (松山城多聞櫓, Tamon Yagura) is a single-storey wooden turret joining the small keep to the south corner turret within the 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.

Four corner buildings and four connecting ones make up the compound. This turret is the connector on the south side, the counterpart of the much longer Ten-Bay Corridor on the west. At 52 square metres it covers less than half the floor area of that building, which reflects the shorter gap it has to bridge rather than any lesser role.

The predecessor was destroyed in the arson attack of 1933 that took the small keep, both corner turrets and the Ten-Bay Corridor. The Agency for Cultural Affairs records the present building as constructed in 1967; Matsuyama City gives May 27, 1968 as the completion date of the nine rebuilt structures.

Why the register rather than a designation

The twenty-one structures at Matsuyama Castle that came through the twentieth century intact hold the Important Cultural Property designation, the great keep of 1854 among them. Matsuyama Castle Tamon Turret is a rebuilding, so it falls under the register created in 1996 for buildings that contribute to the historic landscape of Japan.

The reconstruction was not guesswork. Following the 1935 listing of the surviving structures under the old National Treasure law, the Ministry of Education drew up basic designs for the nine buildings lost two years earlier, using the survey made before the fire. Those drawings and their specifications governed the postwar rebuilding in timber, which is why the finishes on this turret run continuously into those of the small keep and the south corner turret without a visible seam.

What to look for

The doorway is the detail to find. Where the turret meets the small keep, a flight of steps rises to an opening fitted with a pair of tsuchido, doors built up in earth and plaster over a timber core. These are fire doors. In a compound where every building touches the next, a fire in one room could run the whole ring, and the heavy doors were meant to stop it at the joint. They also close off the small keep from the connecting turret in a siege.

Inside, the space is a single undivided room, the same arrangement as the Ten-Bay Corridor. Outside, on the south face, one hooded stone-drop hatch projects from the base of the wall, covering the ground below the rampart on the outward side.

The wall finish deserves a moment. Vertical battens notched over horizontal boards form the lower band, and above it the Shikkui plaster runs up and over the underside of the eaves. Because the same treatment continues on the buildings at either end, the south face of the compound reads as one continuous white band broken only by the roof lines, and that unity is exactly what the connecting turrets were designed to produce. The roof is Hongawarabuki.

Visiting

Matsuyama Castle Tamon Turret stands on the ticketed circuit through the keep compound and visitors pass through it. Opening hours are 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., with closing at 5:30 p.m. in August and 4:30 p.m. in December and January; the last admission is 30 minutes before closing, and the compound closes on the third Wednesday of December. Admission is 520 yen for adults and 160 yen for elementary school pupils.

Take the Iyotetsu tram to Okaido, about 10 minutes from Matsuyama City Station or JR Matsuyama Station, then walk 5 minutes to the Shinonome-guchi ropeway station. A return ticket valid on either the ropeway or the chair lift costs 520 yen for adults and 260 yen for children, and the upper station is a 10 minute walk from the ticket office. On foot from Shinonome-guchi the climb takes about 30 minutes. Allow around 90 minutes in total.

Personal photography is unrestricted. Live streaming, drones and large equipment are prohibited, and commercial shoots require prior application to the Matsuyama Castle office. The stairs at the small keep end are steep and there is no lift anywhere in the compound.