chugokushimane
Matsue
Matsue is the capital of Shimane Prefecture, on the San'in coast of the Chugoku region, a castle town between Lake Shinji and the Nakaumi lagoon, with one of Japan's twelve original castle keeps.
- Prefecture
- Shimane
- Region
- Chugoku
- Journeys
- The Custom Tour of Japan
overview
A castle town of water, where the lake turns gold in the evening and tea is still made as the old lord taught.
Matsue was built from 1607 by the lord Horio Yoshiharu, who chose a low hill between a great lake and a lagoon for his castle and laid out a town of moats and canals around it. The castle, completed in 1611, was never taken or burned, and its keep is one of only twelve in Japan that survive from the age of castles. Black-boarded and solid, it was designated a National Treasure in 2015.
Under the Matsudaira lords who followed, Matsue became a city of tea. The seventh lord, Matsudaira Harusato, known by his tea name Fumai, was one of the great tea masters of his age, and the city still takes matcha and wagashi as part of daily life, more than almost anywhere in Japan. In 1890 the writer Lafcadio Hearn arrived to teach English, married into a samurai family and took the name Koizumi Yakumo; his books made Matsue known to the world, and his house stands on the old samurai street beneath the castle.
Matsue is a city of water and quiet streets. Lake Shinji lies to its west, famous for its sunsets and its small clams, and Tamatsukuri Onsen, one of the oldest onsen in Japan, is twenty minutes away. Izumo Taisha is within an hour, and to the east, in Yasugi, the Adachi Museum of Art has a garden that many regard as the most beautiful in modern Japan.
see and do
What to see in Matsue
Matsue Castle
One of the twelve original castle keeps of Japan, completed in 1611, five storeys within and black-boarded without, with a view from its top floor across the town to Lake Shinji. It is a National Treasure.
The Horikawa moat by boat
Small flat-roofed boats, steered by a boatman, circle the castle moats in about fifty minutes, passing under some sixteen low bridges for which the roofs are lowered as you glide beneath.
Shiomi Nawate
The samurai street along the northern moat, with its earthen walls, pines and tiled gateways, and the Buke Yashiki, the house of a middle-ranking samurai family.
The Lafcadio Hearn Residence and Memorial Museum
The house where Koizumi Yakumo lived in 1891, with the small gardens he wrote about, and beside it a museum of his life, his writing desk and his Japanese ghost stories.
Meimei-an
A thatched teahouse built in 1779 for the tea master lord Matsudaira Fumai, set on a rise with a view of the castle keep, where tea and a sweet are served.
Lake Shinji and the Shimane Art Museum
The seventh largest lake in Japan, its sunsets famous, with the small island of Yomegashima offshore. The Shimane Art Museum, a long glass building on its shore, was designed to watch the evening light over the water.
Tamatsukuri Onsen
An onsen town twenty minutes south, recorded in the Izumo Fudoki of 733 as a spring of the gods, its ryokan along a stream lined with cherries. Its waters are known for softening the skin.
The Adachi Museum of Art
In Yasugi, about forty minutes east by car, a museum founded in 1970 whose fifty thousand square metres of gardens, raked gravel, pines and a waterfall against the hills, are viewed through its windows as living paintings. A specialist garden journal has ranked it first among the gardens of Japan in every annual survey from 2003 onwards, and its collection of Yokoyama Taikan is the largest anywhere.
Gesshoji
The family temple of the Matsudaira lords, a quiet precinct of moss, ancient trees and the tombs of nine generations, with a great stone tortoise said to wander the town at night.
Kamosu Shrine
A shrine in the countryside south of the city whose main hall of 1346 is the oldest surviving building in the taisha-zukuri style of Izumo Taisha, and a National Treasure.
Yuushien
A Japanese garden on Daikonshima, an island in the Nakaumi lagoon, known for its peonies, grown here for centuries and shown in its halls in every season.
experiences
The best of Matsue
Tea in the tea city
A tea ceremony in Matsue, where the tradition of the lord Fumai is still followed, with wagashi made by one of the city's confectioners whose families have served tea masters for generations.
The Adachi gardens
A morning at the Adachi Museum of Art, the gardens composed like paintings in the frames of its windows, and the screens and scrolls of Yokoyama Taikan within.
Sunset on Lake Shinji
The evening over Lake Shinji, the sky and water turning gold behind the small island of Yomegashima, followed by dinner of the lake's seven delicacies, among them shijimi clams, whitebait and eel.
An evening of onsen
A night at an onsen ryokan in Tamatsukuri, with a private open-air onsen and a kaiseki dinner of crab and fish from the Sea of Japan.
Around the castle by water
The Horikawa moat by boat, past the samurai street and under the low bridges, with the castle keep appearing over the trees.
plan your visit
Matsue on a journey through Japan
- How long to stay
- Two nights is right for Matsue, the Adachi Museum and Izumo Taisha; three let you add Tamatsukuri at leisure and the Sea of Japan coast.
- Getting there
- By the Yakumo limited express from Okayama, on the Shinkansen line, in about two and a half hours through the Chugoku mountains. Izumo Enmusubi Airport, with flights from Tokyo Haneda of about one hour twenty, is half an hour away by car, and Yonago Airport about forty minutes.
journeys
Matsue on a private journey
We shape a journey to Matsue as a Custom Tour of Japan: created around your party alone, on your dates, with a Tour Director beside you.
questions
Matsue: questions answered
Is Matsue worth visiting?
Yes. It has one of the twelve original castle keeps in Japan, a long tradition of tea, the sunsets of Lake Shinji and an onsen town nearby, and it is the best base for Izumo Taisha and the Adachi Museum of Art.
How do you get to Matsue?
By the Yakumo limited express from Okayama, about two and a half hours, or by air from Tokyo Haneda to Izumo or Yonago, about one hour twenty, then a short drive.
How far is the Adachi Museum of Art from Matsue?
About forty minutes by car, in Yasugi to the east. Allow two to three hours for the gardens and the collection.
Is Matsue Castle original?
Yes. Its keep, completed in 1611, is one of only twelve original castle keeps in Japan, and a National Treasure.
How many days do you need in Matsue?
Two days covers the castle, the Adachi Museum and a day at Izumo Taisha, with an evening at Tamatsukuri Onsen.
Why is the Adachi Museum garden so famous?
Because its gardens are composed as paintings and viewed through the windows of the museum, and a Japanese garden journal has ranked it first in Japan in every annual survey from 2003 onwards.
Can Matsue be part of a private tour of Japan?
Yes. The Custom Tour of Japan is created around your party alone, on your dates, with a Tour Director beside you, and it can include Matsue. For independent travel, the Expert Japan Itinerary plans every day for you.
chugoku
More in Chugoku
Matsue, planned for you.
Tell us when you would like to travel and what draws you to Matsue. We will answer with a journey shaped around it: one of our tours, a journey of The Private Collection, or a Custom Tour of Japan created around your party alone.