Imabari Castle

History

For his services during the Battle of Sekigahara Takatora Todo was awarded this large parcel of land on the Iyo peninsula. Takatora began construction of the castle in 1602 and moved here from his castle at Uwajima in 1608 when the palace was completed. That same year he was restationed at Tsu in Ise Prefecture. His adopted son, Takayoshi, took oover Imabari.

In 1635, Takatora's adopted son Takayoshi was reassigned and Sadafusa Matsudaira moved in. Imabari Castle was then controlled by the Matsudaira until the Meiji Restoration. The location of Imabari Castle is very important as a strategic militarily point from which to control traffic through the Seto Sea.

The main keep of Imabari Castle was disassembled in 1610 and carried to Osaka. It was originally supposed to become the main keep of Igaueno Castle but was instead rebuilt as the main keep of Kameyama Castle.

The scaffolding you see on some of the pictures is to there to repair damage suffered in an earthquake.

Visit Notes

This was the second of three castles visited on our trip to Shikoku. The view of the Seto inland sea and Kurushima Bridges is fantastic. The guys who ran the castle were really nice. They even have a real samurai helmet in the back they'll let you wear. Just ask. You'll be surprised how heavy it is.

Gallery

view from the tenshukaku towards the newly reconstructed towers and gate
Yamazatoyagura
inside the kuroganegomon
gate
ninomaru courtyard
donjon and yagura
donjon and gate
yagura, bridge and moat
inside the castle, viewing the kuroganegomon
moats
view of all the towers together
Map

Castle Profile
English Name	Imabari Castle
Japanese Name	今治城
Alternate Names	Fukiage-jo
Founder	Takatora Todo
Year Founded	1604
Castle Type	Flatland
Castle Condition	Reconstructed main keep
Designations	Top 100 Castles
Historical Period	Edo Period
Main Keep Structure	5 levels, 6 floors
Year Reconstructed	1980
Features	main keep, gates, turrets, water moats, stone walls, walls
Visitor Information
Access	Imabari Station, 10 minutes by bus
Visitor Information
Time Required
Website	http://www.islands.ne.jp/imabari/kanko/kuwa/ima castle/
Location	Imabari, Ehime Prefecture
Coordinates	34° 3' 46.98" N, 133° 0' 24.01" E
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Admin
Added to Jcastle	2001
Contributor	Eric
Admin Year Visited	2001
Admin Visits	October 19, 2001

3.65

(20 votes)

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Matthew WardGunshi

15 months ago

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Imabari Castle certainly is a beautiful sight. You get the very well-preserved original walls and seawater moat combined with some very authentically reconstructed yagura and gates, done in wood and according to pictures and other historical materials. And then you get the beautiful, slender main keep rising above it all.

The odd thing, of course, is that the main keep is a totally mogi, even listed as ‘mogi tenshu’ on the castle’s Japanese Wikipedia page. Whether the original castle even had a tenshu is in question. There seems to be some credence to the theory that there was a tenshu and that it was moved to Kameyama Castle, but even if that is the case, it apparently doesn’t duplicate the tenshu shown in old photos of Kameyama Castle particularly well.

So it’s mostly a very authentic castle with a very inauthentic main keep, which is not an uncommon situation in Japan. I regret not knowing much about the castle when I visited (we were on a family trip and my wife and kids suddenly decided to check it out), as I would have spent more time with the other reconstructions. But while I found the main keep museum to be reasonably good, it has very little castle atmosphere inside. The yagura and gates are another story. I have pictures of my family on one of the walls in front of one of the yagura, with lots of visible wood, and it seems that we actually may have been allowed to go inside one of them. It seems like one of those castles that you need time to check out the various reconstructed buildings and ishigaki, as those really are the main attraction.

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ARTShogun

23 months ago

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Uh-oh, I can hear the 'Friends' theme playing again :3

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DiegoDeManilaAshigaru

76 months ago

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Visited 21 Nov 2016. A taxi or bus ride from Imabari Station is probably the best means of getting there, but I ended up hoofing it - about 20-30 minutes one-way. I approached from the west and gradually made my way to the Kurogane-gomon in the north-eastern corner. A long walk, but all the better to appreciate the grand sweep of the fortress and its buildings. Concrete tenshu, though it has its own charm (at least externally) with a nice, slender profile. Beautifully reconstructed wooden yagura. Despite being gradually hemmed in by centuries of landfill, Imabari's moat continues to draw seawater through a large inlet (built into the northern corner), with the level moving up or down depending on the tide.

https://with...vember-2016/

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ARTShogun

96 months ago

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Imabari Castle is a beautiful site. There are lots of reconstructed buildings here and it takes time to see everything. Imabarijō is easily one of the highlights of my tour in Shikoku. The castle was known widely as one of the three great Mizujiro (water castles) of the Edo Period and its moats drew in salt water. It’s construction was especially impressive because it was built on sandy coastal land but remains sturdy today.

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Kiddus i2003Gunshi

127 months ago

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First saw this at night and was very impressed , especially with the waterfront so close. Came back the next day and was still impressed what with its own temples on the grounds and the views.

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RaymondWDaimyo

135 months ago

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My third visit to this castle since 2002. I finally took my time in sussing out this castle and asked a few more questions about the reconstructed turrets and gates. Most of them were reconstructed from mainly pine with some Japanese Cyprus for the columns. The Kuroganegomon Gate is quite an impressive reconstruction, so don’t skip it like I did on my earlier rushed visits. Like the other reconstructed turrets, it used mainly pine and Japanese Cyprus, but for the massive steel-plated doors of the gates, zelkova was used. Most of the wood was sourced from forests in Shimane Prefecture and Tottori Prefecture. As Furikazan below has already mentioned, there are plenty of suits of samurai armour on display inside the reconstructed concrete keep. I counted around 25 suits of armour. I took a taxi to the site and then the local bus back to JR Imabari Station. The taxi only cost around 700yen, and there is a bus roughly every 8 to 10 minutes from a bus stop a little down from the Kuroganegomon Gate.

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RaymondWDaimyo

151 months ago

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Furinkazan, I will definitely start with the castle keep next time and the other yaguras with their museums. BTW, I have just realised that I made a mistake with Todo Takatora's name. I had called him \Toda"instead of \""Todo\"". Imabari Castle certainly deserves a good half day."""

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FurinkazanDaimyo

151 months ago

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@RaymondW, you are right about the painting of Tokugawa's generals and scroll. I actually didn't asked which castle had the most armors. Contenders would be Uedajo and Osakajo. Try next time to take the tour by starting at the tenshukaku. You can take there a double-page leaflet and a stamp. Then you go to the towers and you'll get 3 other stamps and finally the stamp of Toda Takatora

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RaymondWDaimyo

151 months ago

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Imabari Castle does have a very good museum. As Furinkazan has mentioned, there are lots of suits of armour there. If I recall correctly, there is a scroll painting of Tokugawa Ieyasu’s Top 16 Generals along with some paintings of Toda Takatora. I have been to Imabari Castle twice, but unfortunately, each time I rushed it. The first time was so I could get to a camp site on Oomishima Island (part of the Shimanami Kaido) before dusk while on a bicycle tour in 2002 (focus on cycling and not castles) and the second time was when I tried to fit in both Imabari Castle and Iyo-Matsuyama Castle in one day two years ago. I definitely need to re-visit this castle and devote a good half day to properly enjoy it instead of doing it in just an hour or hour and a half. For me, this site is worth at least 3.5 stars. Furinkazan, do you know which museum or castle has the most important collection of samurai armour in Japan? I think Ueda City Museum in Nagano has a pretty good collection. Himeji Castle has also recently opened up its Watari Yagura (for a limited time during the current massive renovation), and inside must be around 20 suits of armour.

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FurinkazanDaimyo

151 months ago

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The site of this castle is very photogenic. You are able to take very nice pictures from almost every side of the castle, walking around the very large moat. 5 years ago they have rebuild some aditional yagura and the kuroganegomon in original materials. For this i give it 4 stars(the tenshukaku is in concrete, at least inside they tried to hide it with wooden planking). The collection of armors is very impressive. At the entrance they told me that they possess the 2nd most important number of armors that a castle in Japan has. I really recommend this castle when you're in the vicinity.

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Kiddus i2003Gunshi

152 months ago

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Rode my bike from Onomichi to Imabari,then on to Matsuyama.Castles in both towns/cities were great.Imabari was my favorite as it was not just a castle but the site of a shrine (an Inari shrine) and a small temple.The moat was fed by the sea and looked pristine,the castle at night is fantastic.

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Anonymous user #1

167 months ago

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