Masugata

What a masugata is

A masugata is a square enclosure at a castle gate that forces the approach to turn through a right angle. The Japanese name compares it to a square measuring box. Anyone who gets inside must change direction in a confined space while the surrounding turrets and walls bear on them.

Gates exist as parts of this arrangement. The iron-banded gate at Matsuyama Castle in Ehime Prefecture, reconstructed in 1967, is described as a Yaguramon between the Tenshu and the small keep, forming the enclosure on the south side of the keep. The inner gate forms its counterpart to the north.

Turrets are placed to suit it. The west adjoining turret at the same castle, reconstructed in 1971, has an Ishiotoshi at its angled south-west corner and, with the gate to the west, forms an enclosure the entry calls distinctive. Gate, turret and stone drop work as one.

Turning through a right angle is the principle. Both the stone walls and the buildings break at the corner, and the stone drops and Sama concentrate at that break.

Reading the arrangement

Where a record names one, the gate is not standing alone but paired with a second gate or a stretch of wall. At Matsuyama the keep has one to the south and one to the north, with the iron-banded gate and the inner gate as a matched pair.

When visiting, see whether the way turns after the gate. If you cannot pass straight through but must change direction in a square yard, that is the arrangement, and a Tamon-yagura or corner turret usually stands on the walls around it.

The word names a spatial arrangement rather than a building. It is therefore not itself recorded as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property or an Important Cultural Property; the gates and turrets that form it are recorded individually.