Matsuyama Castle (Iyo) - History

History

This castle was originally built by Kato Yoshiaki in 1603. It had a large five-story tenshu, or keep, which was moved to Aizu Castle when Kato was transferred there in 1627. The next lord, Tadachika Gamoh, died in 1635, shortly after completing the ninomaru. After Tadachika, Matsudaira Sadayuki became the new lord. He completed a new Castle Tower (tenshu) in 1642. His heirs continued to rule the castle after his death. However, on New Years Day, 1784, this Castle Tower (tenshu) was struck by lightning and burned down. The current Castle Tower (tenshu) was built between 1820 and 1854. The castle survived the Meiji restoration, but parts of it were destroyed by bombing from American forces during World War II. Since 1966, the city of Matsuyama has been working to restore the castle.

Read more about this topic:  Matsuyama Castle (Iyo)

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    “The history of the world is the record of the weakness, frailty and death of public opinion.”
    —Samuel Butler (1835–1902)

    “All history becomes subjective; in other words there is properly no history, only biography.”
    —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    “When the landscape buckles and jerks around, when a dust column of debris rises from the collapse of a block of buildings on bodies that could have been your own, when the staves of history fall awry and the barrel of time bursts apart, some turn to prayer, some to poetry: words in the memory, a stained book carried close to the body, the notebook scribbled by hand—a center of gravity.”
    —Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)