Matsumoto's National Treasure Castle🏯

Matsumoto Castle (まつもとじょう) is also known as "Karasuji Castle". Its castle tower is one of the 12 existing ancient castle towers in Japan. It is listed as a national treasure of Japan along with Himeji Castle, Inuyama Castle, Hikone Castle and Matsue Castle. In 1582, Ogasawara Sadakei, who defected to Tokugawa Ieyasu, renovated the original castle (Fukashi Castle), built the Honmaru, Ninomaru and Sannomaru, and renamed it Matsumoto Castle. In 1871, the Meiji government announced the "Abolition of Domains and Establishment of Prefectures". Most of the castle towers in the country were nationalized, and many castle towers were demolished. It was all thanks to the efforts of Nagano Prefecture Councillor Ichikawa Ryozo that the castle tower of Matsumoto Castle escaped the fate of being demolished. The castle tower of Matsumoto Castle is both a national treasure and a historic site, so tourists must take off their shoes before entering to avoid damaging the floor. There are several small exhibition halls in the castle tower, which display weapons used in the past. Among the weapons on display, the largest number is fire guns, and almost any type of fire gun can be found here. Fire guns are ancient front-loading tubular firearms that use gunpowder to fire projectiles. Today, we often use them as a general term for ancient firearms. The castle tower has five floors on the outside and six steps inside. The sixth floor is the top floor. The top floor is an observation deck, which overlooks the entire Matsumoto City, and even the distant Japan Alps can be clearly seen, with beautiful scenery.