Japan's 'city of water' — the only intact feudal castle in western Japan, Lafcadio Hearn's adopted home, and the finest wagashi confectionery tradition in the country
Matsue is a small city in Shimane Prefecture on the San'in coast (the Japan Sea side of Honshu) — built on an isthmus between Lake Shinji and Lake Nakaumi, threaded by canals that give it the nickname 'city of water.' It is nationally known for three things: Matsue Castle (Matsue-jo, 1611) — the only feudal castle in western Japan to have survived with its original wooden interiors completely intact (six floors of traditional construction, black timber exterior, the only black castle in Japan); Lafcadio Hearn (Koizumi Yakumo) — the Irish-Greek writer who moved to Matsue in 1890, married a loc…
Matsue was built by Horio Yoshiharu in 1607–11 as a castle town controlling the San'in coast trade. It became the seat of the Matsudaira clan (a branch of the Tokugawa family) in 1638, and Matsudaira Fumai (ruled 1767–1806) was both a major reformer of the clan's finances and the founder of the Fumai-ryu tea school — his tea ceremony philosophy and the wagashi traditions developed to serve it became the cultural identity of Matsue that persists today. Lafcadio Hearn arrived in 1890, was enchanted by the city, stayed 15 months, and produced Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan (1894) — the first succe…