A postcard from...Okadaibuka, Matsumoto

Recommend a sturdy pair of boots

One of Matsumoto's very well kept secrets! I used to live in Okada for nearly ten years, but never knew there used to be a castle perched on a hill top overlooking the suburb, dating back over a thousand years. To be honest, when I told my students about it , they were equally non-plussed.

Site of Okadaibuka, hilltop castle

You really have to look in the right place to find the little path up through the woods from Yoshihirotera Park. And it is a steep hike up an unkempt track, zig-zagging through the trees to a shade under 1,000 metres. The flattened hill top would offer an incredible vista, with a managed tree line - about 270 degrees looking straight down the valley (south) over modern day Matsumoto towards Shiojiri, with the Alps sweeping northwards to the right beyond Joyama Park and the approach from Shiga village. To the left, the pass up & over to Ueda.

Northern apron, overlooking Joyama

There are obvious defensive ditches across the ridgelines; the remanants of the walls would have been steeper yet and really hard to 'surprise'. However, sustaining any kind of force up here would have been really tough; and cold! There are two obvious aprons just below the peak, where soldiers/servants would have been quartered. There is no clue what the fortification would have actually looked like, which is a shame; it was overrun in the 1660s (think Great Fire of London era for context) & became less of a military installation and instead a shrine, maintained by monks for a couple of hundred more years until it burnt down and fell into disuse.

Okadibuka is a hidden treat if you have the time to find it