Shikoku's castle city — Japan's oldest onsen, a hilltop keep, and haiku poet Bashō's footsteps
Matsuyama is the capital of Ehime Prefecture and the largest city on Shikoku island — best known for Dōgo Onsen, said to be Japan's oldest continuously operating hot spring bathhouse (and the model for the bathhouse in Miyazaki's Spirited Away). Matsuyama Castle sits on a 132-metre hill in the city centre and is reached by ropeway or a 15-minute walk up through cherry blossoms in April. The city is also the birthplace of modern haiku through Masaoka Shiki, whose museum sits near the castle. The 88-temple Shikoku Pilgrimage, one of Japan's great spiritual circuits, begins nearby at Temple 1 Ry…
Matsuyama Castle was built by Katō Yoshiakira from 1602 and is one of only 12 original (non-reconstructed) castles remaining in Japan — its three-story donjon has never been destroyed or rebuilt. The city suffered in the final stages of WWII (a July 1945 bombing raid destroyed much of the old town) but the castle survived intact. Dōgo Onsen's main building (the Dōgo Honkan, 1894) underwent renovation from 2019 but remains partially open; its distinctive stepped wooden architecture was the direct inspiration for Yubaba's bathhouse in Studio Ghibli's Spirited Away.