Bitchu Matsuyama Castle

This is the castle I most wanted to visit on this trip. It is one of the 12 original castles.

Historical notes from the J-Castle website - 

Bitchu Matsuyama Castle is well known as being the highest altitude castle in Japan at 480 meters. This was viewed as a strategic location was also viewed as valuable territory for a castle. Akiba Shigenobu first built Ohmatsuyama Castle on a nearby mountain in 1240. As unrest spread throughout the lands, the entire mountain was converted into a castle complex including a a castle on this site (Komatsuyama peak) In 1331 by Takahashi Muneyasu. In the Edo Period the other castles were abandoned and the fortifications on this site were developed into an Edo Period castle. This castle site also had the advantage of being seen from the town below, an important symbol for the domain. This was one of very few 2 level main keep, but being on top of the mountain, there was little need to build a high vantage point. After the Mizunoya there were several different lords until Itakura Katsuyoshi in 1744. His descendents continued to rule until the Meiji restoration.

I walked from the train station in town. After I got out of town, I walked on a small road before meeting the trail and the woods.

Google Translate was my friend on this trip.

I was alone, with no one else hiking up this mountain.  I was already imagining bears and wild boar, then this sign warns of monkeys! Fortunately, I didn’t see any.

The hiking trail was so steep! The hike up to this castle was the most difficult physical thing I have done in a very long time.

When I finally got out of the trees, I was above the clouds.

My first view of what I thought was the castle, wasn’t. Still more to climb.

Almost there…

The inside of the castle was quite small, but looked like what I imagined it would be.

Looking out these windows, I could see men cleaning off the roof.

It was Osouji! The Big New Year Cleaning. Even castles must be cleaned.

The cleaning was supervised by the orange cat.

Going down, I walked on the trail a while, then found the road for workers.

I had to go through a tunnel.

Back to town. This area was where the samurai used to live.

Back to the train station - what a great castle visit!