Japan's Alpine Gateway — Matsumoto Castle's black keep (one of Japan's only original surviving donjon) rises against the Northern Alps, the Japan Ukiyo-e Museum holds the largest woodblock print collection in the world, and Matsumoto soba — made with Nagano's cold mountain water — is what drives Japan's top chefs here
Matsumoto is the largest city in Nagano Prefecture's mountain basin — a compact castle city on the Metsubu River at 600 metres altitude, surrounded on three sides by the Japanese Alps (Northern, Central, and Southern Alps). Matsumoto Castle (Matsumoto-jo, also called 'Crow Castle' for its black-lacquered exterior) is one of Japan's only 12 original surviving castles (not reconstructed) and one of only 5 designated National Treasures among Japanese castles. The castle's 6-storey keep (donjon) dates from 1593–1594 and has never been destroyed by fire or earthquake — extraordinarily rare in Japa…
The Matsumoto Basin has been inhabited since the Jōmon period (c. 10,000 BCE) — the area's snowmelt water from the Northern Alps made it one of the most fertile river basins in central Honshu. The Ogasawara clan built the first fortification at Fukashi (later Matsumoto) in 1504; the current stone-foundation donjon was completed by the Ishikawa clan in 1593–1594, just before the Battle of Sekigahara (1600). Under Tokugawa control after Sekigahara, Matsumoto-jo served as the administrative castle of the Matsumoto Domain for the full Edo period (1600–1868). The castle survived the Meiji Restorat…