Takamatsu Castle (Sanuki)

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Préfecture de Kagawa

On the shore of the Seto Inland Sea, a few steps from Takamatsu station and port, Takamatsu Castle — nicknamed Tamamo-jō — is one of Japan's great sea castles. Having received Sanuki Province from Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1587, Ikoma Chikamasa chose this port to build, from 1588, a flatland stronghold whose moats are fed by seawater; he is said to have followed the advice of Kuroda Yoshitaka. After the Ikoma fief was confiscated in 1640, a cadet branch of the Matsudaira settled there in 1642, enlarged the enclosure and opened a gate directly onto the sea. The three-storey keep disappeared in the 1880s, but the Tsukimi turret, the Mizute-gomon water gate and other original turrets survive and are designated Important Cultural Properties, as is the Hiunkaku pavilion built by the Matsudaira in 1917. Today the site forms Tamamo Park: visitors can walk along the stone walls, tour the moats by boat and climb the platform of the former keep, which looks out over the islands of the Inland Sea. The castle is listed among Japan's 100 Fine Castles.