Bitchu-Matsuyama Castle

This castle is at the top of Mount Gagyu at an altitude of 478 meters. This mountaintop castle's location was very important because it was the "pathway" from the central part of Japan to its western areas. At first, the castle was built on top of a hill, but it was then moved and in 1600, Kobori Enshu renovated it. For two years starting in 1681, the castle was rebuilt into its present day form. The Bitchu-Matsuyama Castle is now the only mountaintop castle with a tenshu.

This castle's tenshu was built in 1683 by Mizutani Katsumune. It was small with only two stories. The upper level contained a Buddhist altar. The reason for the simplicity of the tenshu, as opposed to the complex designs like that of the Himeji Castle was because the mountaintop castles were mostly for military purposes. The location of the yamajiros made the castle less homelike and decorative. Usually, the decoration of a castle would symbolize the daimyo's power, but with a mountaintop castle, the location itself is enough symbolism for all to see.

The Japanese had a superstitution which said a building with an even number of floors was bad luck, yet the Bitchu-Matsuyama Castle's tenshu had two stories. To fend off the bad luck, a balcony type level was counted as the third floor.