Matsusaka Castle

En un regard

Le château en bref

Matsusaka Castle was founded in 1588, when Gamō Ujisato left the coastal site of Matsugashima for an inland hill, Yoihonomori, where tradition records an older fortification as early as 1570. At the same time he founded a merchant town that was destined for a long prosperity. His transfer to Aizu, from 1590, did not halt the works: the enclosures were continued under Hattori Kazutada and then Furuta Shigekatsu. In 1619 the castle passed to the domain of Kii, of which it became an administrative centre for Ise Province until the Meiji era. No original building survives, but the masonry is striking in its scale. Walls of rough stone enclose the honmaru, the ni-no-maru, the kitai-maru and the inkyo-maru, and they were restored between 1988 and 2003. Excavations yielded a roof tile bearing the year 1579, probably made from the same mould as pieces from Azuchi Castle, as well as gold-leaf roof tiles. The three-storey tower that tradition places on the platform collapsed in a storm in 1644. Turned into a park in 1881, the site also houses the residence of Motoori Norinaga, moved there in 1909.