What a tamon-yagura is
A tamon-yagura is a long single-tier range built along the top of a stone rampart. Unlike a corner turret standing on its own, its purpose is to connect one building to another.
The corridor turret at Matsuyama Castle in Ehime Prefecture, reconstructed in 1967, is described as a single-tier range linking the small keep to the south corner turret, roofed on two slopes in Hongawarabuki, its walls in the same Shikkui and Shitami-itabari as the turrets, with a hooded Ishiotoshi on its outer south face. A roof falling to front and back suits a long narrow building.
The ten-bay corridor at the same castle links the south and north corner turrets, and the entrance corridor turret joins the east side of the north corner turret, Irimoya-zukuri on its east face, with an inner gate on the southern half of that face and an entrance porch on the south. Gates and porches are built into these ranges as needed.
Linked in sequence they enclose the Tenshu, forming the connected keep. The ranges are what give the group its outline.
What the interiors held
Interiors vary with use. The ten-bay corridor is described as one room with no ceiling, the roof frame left exposed, and Sama ranged in an even line along the outer west wall. Leaving the frame open also gains height for a passage.
The entrance corridor turret has a corridor along its south side and a single room to the north, passage and room side by side.
The corridor turret is a single room with plastered Tsuchido hung at the doorway above the stair from the small keep, closing the junction against fire.
On site, look for the low building running horizontally along the top of a rampart. If it links two two-tier corner turrets, that is the type.
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs: Registered tangible cultural properties (structures)
- https://www.bunka.go.jp/seisaku/bunkazai/shokai/yukei_kenzobutsu/toroku_yukei.html
- National Cultural Properties Database: Matsuyama Castle corridor turret, linking the small keep to the south corner turret
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00013000
- National Cultural Properties Database: Matsuyama Castle ten-bay corridor, its roof frame exposed and loopholes ranged along the outer wall
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00012999
- National Cultural Properties Database: Matsuyama Castle entrance corridor turret, a single-tier range joined to the north corner turret
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00012997
- National Cultural Properties Database: Matsuyama Castle small keep, a two-tier corner turret with hooded stone drops on two faces
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00012994
Last verified: 2026.09.03