View source for Bitchu Matsuyama Castle and Ohmatsuyama Castle Updates

{{news
|NewsTitle=Bitchu Matsuyama Castle and Ohmatsuyama Castle Updates
|NewsDate=2025-01-23
|NewsBody=This update is only one day of castle exploring but it brings lots of new content and exciting updates to Jcastle. 

[[Bitchu Matsuyama Castle]] is well known as one of the [[Original main keep|12 original castles]]. Travellers tend to just go to the main keep and return but extending along the ridge behind the castle are many more ruins to explore. The first time I visited this castle, it was actually closed off due to typhoon damge to the bridge and it took 14 years to make it back again!

At one point the entire mountaintop of Mt. Gagyu was fortified beginning with [[Ohmatsuyama Castle]]. In the Edo Period that was scaled back to focus on the main keep at the present day location on a peak called Komatsuyama, where it could also be seen from the town and act as an important symbol of the domain. [[Bitchu Matsuyama Castle - Outer Baileys|Along this ridge]] you will also find many more stone walls, baileys, a unique stone walled pond and a stone wall guardhouse platform overlooking a stone walled gate and horikiri trench. 

In the [[Bitchu Matsuyama Castle - Castle Town|castle town]], you will find stone walls of the palace foundations and 2 original samurai homes. A temple complex on the opposite side of town focused on Shogenji also functioned as a fortification during a time when castle construction was strictly regulated by the Tokugawa government. Take a look at the photo for Shogenji. It looks like a castle itself!
|CastlesReferenced=[[Bitchu Matsuyama Castle||Ohmatsuyama Castle]]
}}