Article Matsuyama Castle

This thread is for the general discussion of the Article Matsuyama Castle. Please add to the discussion here.

The article Matsuyama Castle has been updated:

A few edits and corrections.

In Matsuyama City, officials have begun searching for documents that might shed light on the appearance and layout of castle buildings lost in the years following the end of the Edo period in 1867. Alongside old architectural drawings, they are hoping to uncover materials from abroad—perhaps photographs taken by foreign visitors who saw the castle in the early Meiji era, between 1868 and 1889, before those structures disappeared. Using any such discoveries, the city hopes to determine whether it would be possible to restore parts of the "ninomaru" and "sannomaru" precincts—the second and third baileys—including the former Sannomaru Palace.


The city plans to accept submissions until March 2027. Matsuyama Castle itself was first built in 1602 by Katō Yoshiaki, a feudal commander who had served under Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537–1598). Construction was later completed by Gamō Tadatomo, grandson of both Gamō Ujisato and shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, after his reassignment to the Matsuyama Domain. When the Gamō family lost its holdings, the Matsudaira clan governed the domain for sixteen generations. After the Meiji Restoration, the family reverted to its original name, Hisamatsu, and was later ennobled as counts.

Lower to its southwest was the "ninomaru," where the Ninomaru Palace stood and heirs to the domain lord resided, and the "sannomaru," which housed the Sannomaru Palace -- the lord's residence and the domain's administrative center -- along with samurai residences. After the return of land and population registers to the emperor in 1869, the Sannomaru Palace was used as the domain's administrative office, but was destroyed in a fire believed to have started in a kitchen in 1870. Subsequently, the bailey became military land, and after World War II, facilities such as a hospital and a baseball stadium were built. To pass on Matsuyama Castle, almost all of which is designated as a national historic site, to future generations, the city has developed a preservation and utilization plan. To enhance the site's historical value, it has dismantled the post-WWII facilities on the "sannomaru" site, and is conducting archaeological excavations and seeking to restore the Sannomaru Palace.

Click to expand...