Bitchū Matsuyama Castle

Overview

Bitchū Matsuyama Castle (備中松山城, Bitchū Matsuyama-jō) is a Japanese castle in the city of Takahashi, in Okayama Prefecture, in the San'yō region of western Honshu. It is also known as Takahashi Castle (高梁城, Takahashi-jō). Two facts set it apart from almost every other castle in the country: it preserves one of only twelve original Edo-period keeps still standing, and it sits higher above sea level than any other castle in Japan, at 430 metres. The site has been protected by the central government as a National Historic Site since 1956, and it is listed among the 100 Fine Castles of Japan.

History

The castle's origins are dated to 1240, in the Ninji era (仁治, Ninji, a Japanese era name) of the Kamakura period, the age when Japan was governed by the Kamakura shogunate and its warrior class. It was built at Uchisange, the hilltop position it still occupies, and its early purpose was control of the surrounding valley and the roads running through it.

The castle is closely tied to the Bitchū Conflict, the struggle for dominance in Bitchū Province during the Sengoku period, the century and a half of near-constant warfare that ended with the unification of Japan around 1600. In the Edo period that followed, the castle became the headquarters of the Bitchū-Matsuyama Domain, the local feudal territory ruled from this site. As the seat of a domain, it was both a military installation and an administrative centre, and the surrounding castle town grew up beneath it.

What Stands There Today

The most important survival at Bitchū Matsuyama Castle is its tenshu (天守, tenshu), the main keep — the tall, multi-storeyed tower that forms the visual symbol of a Japanese castle. Only twelve castles in Japan retain a tenshu from the pre-modern period rather than a modern concrete reconstruction, and Bitchū Matsuyama's is one of them. The keep stands on the mountain, not on a flat plain, which is what gives the castle its record elevation of 430 metres above sea level.

The site is a National Historic Site, designated in 1956, and it forms part of the 100 Fine Castles of Japan, a list maintained to promote awareness of the country's surviving castle heritage. The castle's position on a wooded peak means that reaching the keep involves a climb through the mountain paths, and in the right weather conditions the castle is famous for appearing to float above a sea of morning mist that fills the valley below.

The Name in Japanese

The full name is 備中松山城, read in kana as びっちゅうまつやまじょう, and written in romaji as Bitchū Matsuyama-jō. The macron over the final ū marks a long vowel: the syllable is held roughly twice as long as a short u.

Broken down character by character:

• 備 — read here as bi. It means "to prepare" or "to provide against". In old provincial names it appears as a conventional written form rather than a description of the place.
• 中 — read here as chū. It means "middle" or "inside". Together, 備中 (Bitchū) is the name of the old province covering the western part of what is now Okayama Prefecture. The province was divided into 備前 (Bizen, "front"), 備中 (Bitchū, "middle") and 備後 (Bingo, "back") — a naming pattern used across Japan, in which the capital region's perspective determined which province was "front", "middle" or "back".
• 松 — read here as matsu. It means "pine tree". Pines are a standard element of Japanese place names and castle names.
• 山 — read here as yama. It means "mountain". 松山 (Matsuyama) therefore means "pine mountain", a fitting name for a castle on a wooded peak.
• 城 — read here as jō. It means "castle". This is the standard final character in Japanese castle names, and it is the element that tells a reader immediately what kind of place is being named.

Note that 松山 (Matsuyama) is also the name of a major city in Ehime Prefecture on Shikoku. The prefix 備中 (Bitchū) exists to distinguish this castle from Matsuyama Castle in Ise, in Mie Prefecture, and from the Matsuyama of Shikoku. The alternative name 高梁城 (Takahashi-jō) simply takes the name of the present-day city, Takahashi, and adds 城.

Visiting and Context

Bitchū Matsuyama Castle stands at coordinates 34.8090889, 133.6223250, in the Uchisange area of Takahashi, Okayama Prefecture. It is reached from Takahashi, which lies inland in the mountainous northern part of the prefecture, and the final approach to the keep is on foot up the mountain.

For readers of Japanese, the castle is a useful case study in how place names work. The name stacks a province name (備中), a descriptive place name (松山, "pine mountain") and a category word (城, "castle") in a single string, and the same pattern recurs across the country: province plus place plus 城. Recognising 城 as "castle" alone unlocks the names of hundreds of sites, and recognising the old province names — 備前, 備中, 備後 and their many counterparts — makes sense of addresses and historical references that otherwise look arbitrary.

The castle also belongs to a small, select group: the twelve castles with original keeps. For anyone tracing the survival of pre-modern Japanese architecture, that number is the essential fact, because it separates the handful of castles that are genuine early modern structures from the far larger number of sites where only stone walls and reconstructed towers remain.