Matsumoto Castle Tour

Walking to the castle, I saw a small building with a table in front and a sign offering free tours in English.

Matsumoto is one of the 12 original castles.

Since the pandemic, the volunteer guides have not been able to guide inside the castle, so we said goodbye before I entered the castle. Mitsuto san was a knowledgeable and entertaining guide.

I visited Matsumoto Castle in 2018, and posted pictures of the inside of the castle then. Check it out of you are interested in seeing the inside. When I visited in 2018, the entry ticket was 610 yen. Now it is 1300 yen! 

Information about the castle can be found online here.

Work In Progress Wednesday

The Tale of Genji progress

Three more Christmas tree ornaments, to be finished sometime soon.

Knot Garden progress

Matsumoto Castle Projection Mapping

After seeing pictures online of the Matsumoto Castle Projection Mapping, I wanted to see it for myself. I took the train to Matsumoto, arriving late afternoon, with time to check into the hotel and eat dinner before walking to the castle grounds. It was snowing and much colder than where I live, but well worth standing outside to see it.

Walking

 This is me. 

I walked a lot on my December trip. I didn’t remember to take a screen shot every day, but here are some examples:

Wakayama Castle

Castle History from the J-Castle website

In 1585, under the orders of his older brother Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Toyotomi Hidenaga established Wakayama Castle to help rule over the Kii area. When the castle was finished, Hidenaga had made Yamato Koriyama Castle his home base and stationed Kuwayama Shigeharu here in his place.

Asano Yoshinaga was stationed at Wakayama Castle after the Battle of Sekigahara. In 1619, Tokugawa Ieyasu's 10th child Yorinobu became lord of the castle. From that point until the Meiji Restoration the castle was ruled by successive Tokugawa lords.

Even after the Meiji Restoration, the beautiful main keep was kept intact and designated a National Treasure. Unfortunately, it burned to the ground during bombings in 1945. Wakayama Castle together with Himeji Castle and Iyo-Matsuyama Castle are called the Three Great Flatland Mountain Castles.