Matsue Castle

Matsue, Japan, Japan

---

Matsue Castle (Matsue‑jō, often called Chidori‑jō or “Plover Castle”) is a hilltop castle in the city of Matsue, Shimane Prefecture, on the shores of Lake Shinji, and it is one of only twelve original castles in Japan that still retain their wooden main keep, and one of only five full castles designated as a National Treasure.

Built between 1607 and 1611 by the daimyō Horio Yoshiharu, who founded the castle town of Matsue, the castle’s main keep is about 30 meters high and features a Momoyama‑style design with simple, sturdy construction, watchtowers, and distinctive board siding with battens that gives its rooflines a shape likened to the wings of a plover bird in flight.

After Horio’s death, the Matsudaira clan, a branch of the Tokugawa family, took over the domain in 1638 and governed until the end of the Edo period; they preserved the keep in its original condition while modernizing the town, and although much of the castle complex was lost in the late shogunate, the main keep and some outer walls were carefully restored following a 1931 fire and later earthquakes, and in July 2015 the keep was officially designated a National Treasure.