Matsumoto Castle Tower

From Bunroku to Kanei: Five Buildings as One National Treasure

Matsumoto Castle Tower (松本城天守, Matsumotojo Tenshu) is a castle building at Marunouchi, Matsumoto City, Nagano Prefecture, designated a National Treasure in 1936 under the earlier preservation law, and again in 1952 under the Cultural Properties Protection Law. The quantity is five buildings: the keep, the northwest small keep, the connecting turret, the southeast attached turret and the moon-viewing turret. It belongs to the state, under the Ministry of Education.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs sets out the building of the castle in stages. The site is said to have held a warrior residence from the middle of the Muromachi period, and the castle proper is said to begin with Fukashi Castle, built here in 1504. The Ogasawara family later renamed it Matsumoto and enlarged it.

Ishikawa Kazumasa, enfeoffed here in 1590, began repairs at once but died in 1593; his son Yasunaga carried them on, raised the keep and put the castle in order. The present keep dates from that work and appears to have been built between 1594 and 1599.

The citation continues on the later additions: a major enlargement in the Kanei era, 1624 to 1644, added the southeast attached turret and the moon-viewing turret, bringing the group to its present shape, and after the Meiji Restoration the keep and its enclosure fortunately escaped demolition and survive today.

The Five Buildings Are Not of One Date

That the listing counts five buildings reflects how the castle came to be. They were not built together.

The northwest small keep is three tiers and four storeys with a tiled roof, dated 1592. The keep is five tiers and six storeys, and the connecting turret two tiers and two storeys, both tiled and dated to about 1615. The southeast attached turret is two tiers and two storeys, tiled, and the moon-viewing turret one tier with a basement, tiled; both belong to the Kanei era, 1624 to 1643.

A small keep close in date to the warring period, a keep and connecting turret of the early Edo years, and two turrets of the settled peace stand together as one group. When the Agency describes a form of great variety in both plan and elevation, it is that spread of dates showing in the shape.

The moon-viewing turret is a single tier with a basement, open on three sides. It was not built for defence but for looking at the moon. A keep made for fighting and a turret made for moon-viewing fall under one designation, and that is what marks this castle.

Why It Was Designated: Five Tiers on a Plain

The Agency's judgement runs: the keep of Matsumoto Castle is among the larger surviving keeps and an early example in date. It is a castle of the plain, a keep of five tiers and six storeys standing on stone walling of gentle slope.

A castle of the plain is built on level ground and cannot draw height from the terrain as a mountain castle does. Matsumoto raises five tiers and six storeys on gently sloped walling, taking its height from the building rather than from the stone.

The citation turns to design: with the northwest small keep and the other buildings ranged to the north and east, the form has great variety in both plan and elevation. Each building carries cusped and dormer gables on its roofs in a skilful design, and points such as the boarding on the wall surfaces preserve older forms. It occupies a particularly important place among the castle buildings of Japan.

The mention of wall boarding as an older form is easy to pass over. Later keeps were generally finished all over in white plaster; Matsumoto keeps black weatherboarding across its lower walls. The black the castle is known for comes from that boarding.

Connected and Compound: Two Arrangements

The five buildings join in two ways. As the castle's own account puts it, the great keep and the northwest small keep are connected by the connecting turret, and the southeast attached turret and the moon-viewing turret are compounded to the keep: a connected-compound arrangement.

Connected means separate keeps joined by a linking turret. Compound means turrets attached directly to the keep. At Matsumoto the small keep is connected by a turret while the two later turrets are fixed straight onto the keep.

The Outline of National Treasures, compiled by the religious affairs bureau of the Ministry of Education at the 1936 designation, recorded that this keep joins great and small keeps by a connecting turret, a rare example of the so-called connected keep, and a forerunner of the keep at Nagoya Castle. From the first designation, the manner of joining was itself the object of assessment.

Visiting

The castle opens from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., last entry 4:30 p.m., closed from 29 to 31 December. For admission charges, check the castle office's information.

The stairs inside are those of a surviving keep: steep and narrow, with shallow treads and high risers in places, climbed with a handrail. Travel light and wear shoes you can climb in. There can be a wait to enter at busy times.

The exterior can be seen from the honmaru garden and from beyond the inner moat. The view with the Northern Alps behind reads best from across the moat to the northwest. Entering the honmaru through the black gate brings the joining of the five buildings into view from the front.

From Matsumoto Station on the JR Shinonoi Line it is about 15 minutes on foot. By car the Matsumoto interchange on the Nagano Expressway is about 15 minutes away, with paid parking nearby.