The Beautiful Japanese Castle Remaining from the Edo Period ~ Matsuyama Castle

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Matsuyama Castle is located at the top of Katsuyama in the center of Matsuyama City. It is one of Japan's twelve remaining tenshu and a well-preserved Edo-period castle.

Every time I visit Japan, I'm deeply impressed by its Japanese castles—Osaka Castle, Kumamoto Castle—each one magnificent. This time is no exception. The imposing tenshu stands proudly on the hill, making me eager to explore it.

We headed to take the cable car up. There are two types here: the box-type cable car and the single-chair cable car. On the way up, we took the box-type first.

Keep your tickets; you'll need to tear another one on the return trip.

The cable car station also sells Matsuyama Castle specialties.

While waiting, you can see the single-chair cable car coming from the opposite direction.

It looks fun too—your feet dangle in the air, and with a bit of wind, it might feel like swinging on a swing.

On the way back, riding the single-chair cable car wasn't as scary as I imagined—super smooth.

The guide also gave our group free ice cream made from the local orange specialty—orange soft-serve. I found it a bit watery and not very tasty.

After eating, you can browse the souvenir shop.

Waiting for the guide to buy tickets for the tenshu.

Then we can go up and explore.

You don't have to go up; the entire Matsuyama Castle plaza is huge and you can wander around taking photos.

Since we're here, we decided to go up and take a look. Some friends who had been before didn't want to climb the stairs and waited for us in the plaza.

The walls inside wind around like a maze, but there's only one path. It feels like the ancients designed it to confuse enemies or slow them down by forcing detours.

It felt like a long climb before reaching the tenshu. Inside, you have to change into their slippers.

There are also shoe lockers for storage.

Be careful on the stairs—they're steep and narrow. One foot can feel half-exposed in the air. Holding the handrail is safest.

Inside, samurai swords are on display.

Matchlocks.

Historical artifacts.

There's also a samurai armor try-on photo experience.

We looked out from the windows over the entire Matsuyama Castle and saw our companions below—it was so fun.

[Attraction Information]

Attraction Name: Matsuyama Castle

Hours: 09:00–16:30

Phone: +81 89-921-4873