Matsumoto Castle
| Matsumoto-jō | ||
|---|---|---|
 Matsumoto Castle |
||
| Creation time : | 1504 | |
| Castle type : | Hirajiro ( Lower Castle ) | |
| Conservation status: | largely preserved | |
| Construction: | Stone, wood | |
| Place: | Matsumoto | |
| Geographical location | 36 ° 14 '20 " N , 137 ° 58' 9" E | |
|
||
The Burg Matsumoto ( Jap. 松本城 , Matsumoto-jo ) is a Japanese castle . It is located in Matsumoto in Nagano Prefecture . The easy accessibility from Tokyo makes it a popular tourist destination within Japan.
The castle is sometimes called the crow's castle ( 烏 城 , karasujō ) because of the black color and the "spread wings" . It is a good example of a low castle as it was not built on a mountain.
history
The origins of the castle go back to the Sengoku period ( time of the warring states ). At the time, the Ogasawara clan built a fortress called Fukashi-jō ( 深 志 城 ) on the area. It later came under the rule of Takeda Shingen and finally Tokugawa Ieyasu .
When Toyotomi Hideyoshi Ieyasu moved to the Kantō area, Ishikawa Kazumasa was his successor in Matsumoto. Kazumasa and his son Yasunagana expanded the fortress into a castle in the years that followed and built the tower and other parts of the current complex.
In 1872, after the Meiji restoration , the main building was sold at auction and could only be spared from dismantling through the cooperation of residents from Matsumoto.
As one of the few originally preserved castles, it is part of the official national treasure of Japan .
literature
- Morton S Schmorleitz: Castles in Japan , Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle Co., 1974, ISBN 0-8048-1102-4 .
- Hinago Motoo: Japanese Castles . Tokyo: Kodansha, 1986, ISBN 0-87011-766-1 .
