Matsumoto Castle

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Yesterday was all about Matsumoto-jo (Jo meaning Castle). Matsumoto-jo was built in the early 1500s, making it older then the other castle I saw last trip, Himeji-jo. Himeji is about 10x larger, but this castle makes up for it in breathtaking splendor... which explains the over 100 pictures I ended up taking today lol. I've uploaded “the best” pics here for you to check it out. I accidentally hit a button on my camera that resulted in the ISO level going to max.. what that means in human terms is they're rather grainy, affected about half of the pics sadly. Going to be posting the other non castle pics from Matsumoto tomorrow.

After I showed my ticket (half price thanks to the place I stayed) and got inside, I heard what sounded like a Hello. I turned and here was this older Japanese guy who is part of a group that offers free tours of the castle in English. Sweet! Turns out although his English was a bit hard to follow at times, he was VERY knowledgeable about the castle, and all castles in Japan as it turns out. He was able to contrast differences between this one and the one at Himeji which was a nice touch. Some of the cool inside stories he filled me in on:

Although the castle was apparently attacked it never fell, which meant it's the only castle in the area where the lord (Daimyo) never had to commit Seppuku (ritualistic suicide), nice touch.

At one point the castle started to tilt, like the leaning tower of Pisa. he showed me one of the main beams where rope was attached and hooked up outside the tower. They then tried to pull on the rope in an effort to straighten it. The reason why the tower to shift is tied to a peasant revolt that occurred due to taxes. After appeasing the crowds the ruler took some of the “ring leaders” and executed them at the castle. Now at this point I didn't quite make out what he said, but apparently this somehow relates back to the tilting.

The castle appears to have 5 levels, but in fact has a hidden floor inside fooling the enemy who might b storming it. Another defensive feature was the castle was designed for musket warfare so the moat was made 60m wide, 10m farther then the effective range of their muskets.

There was at one point a palace situated outside the main tower. However in about 1727 one of the Samurai's sneaked into the kitchen where a maid was working and as they were busy elsewhere the place caught fire and was completely destroyed.

The belief as to why the castle itself was spared from the fire, and why it was never captured, is due to the goddess of the castle. On January 26th, 1618, a vassal on duty saw a beautiful woman who said that if 600kg of rice was enshrined to her on the 26th of each month she'd protect it from fire and enemies. So far so good.

He also shared his knowledge on various major battles that occurred in Japan's history. One such story involves a major battle between the peasants and the ruling lords. The peasants started to convert to Christianity and the lords who saw this as a threat demanded they stop. Instead they revolted and were finally defeated by being starved to death in a castle they were holed up in. This was one of the major reasons for Japan's isolationist policy that was in place for I think 200 years. Also explained how guns made their way to Japan.. two Europeans found their way to Japan, and upon showing the muskets to the lord were paid a TON of gold for the secrets. Very quickly they copied and spread the weapons throughout Japan which changed their style of warfare from being up close and personal to over long distances.

40 years after the main castle tower was built, a third tower was added. However this was during a time of peace so it contained a moon viewing room. A favorite past time of the Japanese is viewing the moon. This room had an inner area and an outer, where Samurai would sip Sake and watch the THREE moons, as the guide put it. They were able to watch the moon in the sky, the moon in the water's reflection, and also the moon in their drinks reflection.

After the tour I ran into a retired couple from New Mexico, they saw me with the tour guide so were curious as to what he said. I probably ended up enjoying this tour then the one 2 years ago at Himeji.

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Photos

Matsumoto-jo
Matsumoto-jo is one of the four top castles in all of Japan. It's smaller then Himeji but about 10 years older.

Matsumoto-jo
This is one of three types of Castles in Japan, a plains castle. There's also mountain and hilltop castle styles.

Construction diagram
Internal view of how the towers were built. It's unique in having a wooden base inside the stone foundation.

Arrow and Gun windows
The tall one on the left is for bows, the square one on the right for muskets

Warrior Windows
These windows had a sliding counterpart. Because a musket takes 3 minutes to reload, they'd shoot through this, close the windows, reload, then reopen. Simple yet highly effective.

Map of the town and the guide
My guide was kind enough to let me take his picture. The map is showing how the town once looked. Approx population then 16,000. Now there's about 200,000.

Palace Grounds
300 years ago if you looked out you'd see the Palace for the castle.

Musket-era Armor
This armor was actually fairly light, about 20kg, and better suited for musket combat.

Assasin Guns
These were guns that were able to be concealed, probably used by Ninja assasins. Seriously.

Battle of Osaka
The painting on the left is of the castle in Osaka. Thanks to gun warfare Tokugawa leveled this castle and brought about a unified Japan.

War of Faiths
This depicts a large battle between the commoners who were converted to Christians and the rulers of Japan who were trying to stamp out the religion. After this battle Japan entered an era of Isolationist policy.

Ancient Rocketry
These would be fired and burst into flames on contact with the castle walls.

Epic Battle - Left
This painting shows a battle between two lords. On the right was a force of cavalary and spears. On the right, troops with Muskets.

Epic Battle - Right
The force on the left decimated the cavalry with spears, cementing a new era of warfare in Japan.

Decorated Musket
This is the most expensive gun shown in the castle, was used by a higher level Samurai

Fearsome Cannon
Pretty small actually...