* Image is for illustrative purposes only.Hirado Castle
平戸城
Hirado Castle is a historic castle in Kyūshū dating from the Construction began 1599 (Keichō 4); rebuilt 1718 (Kyōhō 3), whose lord was Matsuura Shigenobu / Matsuura clan.
Overview
About the Castle
Hirado Castle is a seaside fortress (umijiro) located in the northern part of Hirado Island, which floats in the Genkai Sea at the western tip of Kyushu. The Matsuura clan, a powerful regional daimyo family of northwestern Kyushu with lineage tracing back to the late Heian period, made Hirado—their home base—function since ancient times as a window for trade with China, Korea, and Southeast Asia. In Keicho 4 (1599), Matsuura Shigenobu began construction of the castle, but in Keicho 18 (1613), Shigenobu himself burned the castle and abandoned it. In Kyoho 3 (1718), with bakufu approval, the castle was rebuilt, though without a tenshu this time; instead, the inui sannyuu yagura (corner tower) served as a substitute for the main keep. The current three-story tenshu is a mock castle built of reinforced concrete in Showa 37 (1962). The unique landscape of Hirado, where castle, temple, and church coexist, is famous as the "landscape where castle and church can be seen together," and the iconic view of the castle rising beside the harbor with a church's cross visible over the castle walls represents a symbolically rare vista of cultural coexistence found nowhere else in the world.
International Trading Hub
From the 16th to the 17th centuries, Hirado was at the forefront of international trade in Japan. Portuguese ships arrived in 1550, and Francis Xavier visited Hirado, making it a base for Christian missionary work. Subsequently, the Dutch and English East India companies established trading posts, and Hirado became an international commercial hub in East Asia. The fact that William Adams (Miura Anjin), earning the trust of Tokugawa Ieyasu, resided in Hirado is an important chapter in Anglo-Japanese relations. Until 1641, when the Dutch trading post relocated to Dejima in Nagasaki under the sakoku (national isolation) policy, Hirado remained Japan's largest international trading port.
Matsuura Family Culture
Though a samurai clan, the Matsuura family possessed exceptionally high cultural refinement, and successive generations cultivated waka poetry, renga (linked verse), tea ceremony, and Noh theater. In particular, the 12th daimyo Matsuura Seisan was renowned as an exemplary leader with profound knowledge of swordsmanship, military strategy, and literature. His late-life essays, the "Kassiyawa" (甲子夜話), are highly valued as first-rate cultural documents of the Edo period. Seisan's devotion to swordsmanship exemplified the essential nature of the Matsuura clan as a warrior family and gave rise to a distinct martial tradition known as the "Matsuura School" (Matsuura-ryuu). Hirado's culture possessed a unique duality: while making contact with foreign culture through the sea, it steadfastly maintained Japan's indigenous samurai culture.
Architecture and Structure
The tenshu rebuilt during the Kyoho years was a small three-story structure, yet its white appearance reflected in the waters of Hirado Strait possesses exceptional beauty. The castle was built atop a steep rocky mountain, and the stone walls of the tenshu base are composed of carefully laid kirikomi-tsugi (precisely fitted stonework). Within the castle, subsidiary towers such as the Tanuki Tower and Inui Tower remain, conveying to the present day the functional composition of a small but well-designed castle complex. In the late Edo period, cannon emplacements were established in the castle to counter foreign ships.
Tourism and Experience
From Hirado Castle's tenshu, a magnificent vista unfolds of the deep blue waters of Hirado Strait and Kyushu's main island. The "landscape where castle and church can be seen together" is particularly popular with photography enthusiasts as an iconic view representing Hirado. The Matsuura Historical Museum (in the former domain lord's residence) displays swords, armor, trade goods, and diplomatic documents passed down through the Matsuura family.
Connection to Swords
The Hirado Matsuura clan's sword culture was nurtured by both the samurai culture of northwestern Kyushu and international commerce, possessing a distinctive depth all its own. As a samurai clan, the Matsuura family consistently promoted martial arts across generations, and clan-retained swordsmiths established workshops in the castle town. Hizen Province (present-day Nagasaki and Saga prefectures) remained throughout the Edo period one of Japan's premier sword-producing regions. Hizen swords—those of the Saga Nabeshima clan's retained master smiths such as Tadayoshi and Masahiro—became celebrated throughout the nation for their orderly hamon and the beauty of their steel. The Hirado swordsmiths, while influenced by this Hizen forging tradition, developed their own distinctive style. Particularly noteworthy is the report that the Matsuura clan obtained and experimentally employed nanban-tetsu (foreign-produced iron) as sword-forging material through international trade. Nanban-tetsu possessed different composition than tamahagane, and blades forged from it are said to have demonstrated distinctive sharpness and strength. This experimental approach to foreign materials reveals the enlightenment of the Hirado swordsmiths, emerging from their location as an international port. The ninth lord, Matsuura Seizan, was celebrated as a master swordsman, and his work Kasshi Yawa contains numerous invaluable descriptions of swordsmanship and sword lore. Seizan possessed discerning knowledge of sword appraisal, and his sword collection is said to have been unsurpassed in both quality and quantity even among the finest in Kyushu. Among the swords transmitted within the Matsuura clan are nanban-style fittings obtained as trade goods from Portugal and Holland, and these rare works fusing Western metalworking techniques with Japanese sword-fitting art have attracted considerable interest from fittings researchers. In Hirado, there was an era when both swords and firearms held equal status as samurai weapons, and a phenomenon rare in world history occurred wherein knowledge of firearms acquired from Dutch engineers and Japanese forging techniques mutually enriched one another. The Matsuura Historical Museum preserves swords, armor, and fittings transmitted from the Matsuura clan, and as a uniquely rare Japanese museum where visitors may experience the distinctive sword culture of Hirado—a center of international commerce—it holds exceptional significance.
Highlights
- Castle-and-church panorama — one of the world's most unique landscapes of cultural coexistence
- Matsuura Historical Museum — 800 years of clan swords, armor, nanban trade goods, and diplomatic documents
- Reconstructed Dutch East India Company trading house (Hirado Oranda Shokan)
- William Adams (Miura Anjin) memorial
- Views of the Hirado Strait and Kyushu mainland from the tower
- Hirado chanpon noodles and Castdos Portuguese-inspired sweets — culinary legacy of the trade era
* Opening hours and admission fees are subject to change. Please check the official website before visiting.