Okayama · TakahashiNo.587★★Open in map →

Bitchu Matsuyama Castle

historyOff the trail — and worth it

An original wooden keep on a ridge above the town of Takahashi, reached by shuttle and then on foot. It is the only one of Japan's surviving castle towers built on a mountain, and in the cold months it is photographed floating above valley cloud.

FromOkayama Station
~35 minLimited express, then shuttle
Get off atBitchu-Takahashi Station (JR Hakubi Line)
From there
Bitchu Matsuyama Castle

Directions ↗

The sweet spot

The castle is well known in Japan and appears in every castle list, so it is not undiscovered. What thins the numbers is the climb. The road stops partway up, the last stretch has to be walked, and the cloud-sea view that draws photographers happens on the far side of the valley at an hour when most visitors are still at breakfast.

Where it is

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What to look for — in walking order

Cloud-sea observation deckJogungagon / CC BY-SA 4.0

Fuigo Passwhere the road ends and the walk begins, at the eighth station of the mountain
Otemon gate ruinsstone walls raised directly onto the exposed rock of the ridge, high above the path
The earthen wallsa surviving run of plastered wall along the approach above the gate
The keepthe original wooden tower, the highest surviving keep in the country
The two-storey turreta smaller original structure standing beyond the keep on the summit enclosure

How to actually get there

Okayama Station → Bitchu-Takahashi Station (JR Hakubi Line, Yakumo limited express).
Bitchu-Takahashi Station → the lower car park, by shared taxi or car; the shared taxi needs booking the day before.
Lower car park → Fuigo Pass on the shuttle bus, while it is running.
Fuigo Pass → the keep, on foot up the stone-walled approach.

Yakumo limited express from Okayama: Okayama Station → Bitchu-Takahashi Station on the JR Hakubi Line. The Yakumo limited express covers it in about 35 minutes; local trains on the same line are slower but useful if your timing misses an express. The castle is on the ridge above the station, so from there almost everyone takes the shared taxi or drives to the lower car park rather than walking the whole way.
Down the mountain, then back to Okayama: Come down the way you went up: the shuttle to the lower car park while it is running, or the shared taxi back to Bitchu-Takahashi Station if you booked a return leg. Trains to Okayama run into the evening, but the last shuttle down the mountain leaves well before dusk, so fix your descent time before you start climbing.

Directions from my location (Google Maps) ↗

About the place

Bitchu Matsuyama Castle sits on Komatsuyama, a ridge about 430 metres above the town of Takahashi. Twelve castles in Japan still hold their original keep, and this is the only one of them standing on a mountain rather than on a plain or a low hill. The keep itself is modest in scale, but the approach is long, and the stone walls banked onto the exposed rock along the path are as much the attraction as the tower. A two-storey turret and a length of earthen wall survive alongside it.

How to enjoy it

From Fuigo Pass the walk up to the keep takes about 20 minutes on a made path, so the castle fits comfortably into a morning if you take an early train out of Okayama. The shuttle up the mountain runs at roughly 15-minute intervals while it is operating, which removes most of the waiting. For the cloud-sea view you need to be on the observation deck across the valley before about 8:00, from late autumn into winter — the castle itself keeps ordinary daytime hours and cannot be entered at that time.

Background & history

The mountain carried a fortress long before the present buildings, and the site was rebuilt again and again as the province changed hands. The keep standing today was finished in 1683, at the end of a reconstruction under the lord Mizunoya Katsumune, who also raised the turret and the gates that fix the castle's present shape. Because those buildings were repaired rather than replaced after the feudal era ended, the timber overhead is old fabric, and the keep, the turret and a section of earthen wall all carry national Important Cultural Property status.

Before you go

Cash: Admission is charged at the castle gate, and the shuttle bus up the mountain is a separate paid ride. The shared taxi from the station is charged per person and has to be booked. Rates here have been revised recently, so confirm the current figures on the day rather than trusting an older listing.
Good to know: The castle closes over the new year, and can shut at short notice in typhoons or heavy snow. While the shuttle is operating, private cars cannot go up to Fuigo Pass and must stop at the lower car park. Sections of the walking approach are occasionally closed for forestry work, with a signed detour.
Another way: For the cloud-sea view, a shared taxi runs in the cold season from Bitchu-Takahashi Station to the observation deck on the far side of the valley, leaving before the light comes up and returning after. It has to be booked in advance. The deck is a different place from the castle, so treat it as a second trip rather than a stop on the way.
After you get off: Bitchu-Takahashi Station is on the valley floor and the castle is on the ridge above it. Walking the whole way up the old approach takes about an hour and a half. Most visitors instead take the shared taxi, or drive to the lower car park and change there onto the shuttle for the last section up to Fuigo Pass.