- Type
- Castle
- Origins
- 1607 · 17th century per Wikidata: founding, first mention or construction
- Location
- Shimane Prefecture, Japan
- Architect
- Oze Hoan
- Visiting
- probably – Wikidata lists it as a museum or gives tickets, opening hours or visitor numbers; check before you go
- Coordinates
- 35.4750°, 133.0506°
History
The castle was built between 1607 and 1611 by Horio Yoshiharu, whose family had been granted Izumo province after the Battle of Sekigahara, and the new town of Matsue grew up around it where the river leaves Lake Shinji. After successive ruling lines died out, the domain passed in 1638 to the Matsudaira, relatives of the Tokugawa, who governed it until the Meiji era. In the 1870s most of the castle buildings were pulled down, but the keep survived because local people bought it back from the authorities. In 2015, after wooden plaques confirming the date of its completion were rediscovered, the keep was designated a National Treasure.
What to see
The keep, clad in black timber, shows four tiers of roofs outside and has five floors plus a basement inside; the basement holds a well, the only surviving example of its kind in an original Japanese keep. The steep staircases of light paulownia wood could reportedly be pulled up in an attack, and the top floor looks out over the town and Lake Shinji. Sightseeing boats glide around the moat and the town's canals, and beside the walls runs a street of old samurai houses with a museum devoted to the writer Lafcadio Hearn.
Wikipedia article Official website Wikidata Q151776
Popularity: articles about this site in 34 Wikimedia projects (Wikipedia language editions and others).