This guide covers a day in Matsushiro, the former Sanada castle town within the city of Nagano: the Alpico Kotsu service from the Zenkoji-guchi side of Nagano, the Matsushiro Castle Ruins, the Sanada Treasure Museum and the Sanada Residence, the Bunbu School, and the town as a Meiji-era gazetteer described it. It also covers lunch, bicycle rental, a hot spring bath and Zozan Shrine, all inside Matsushiro, with places to stay in Matsushiro for anyone staying on.
Getting to Matsushiro from Nagano Station
The Alpico Kotsu Matsushiro-bound line leaves from stop three on the Zenkoji-guchi side of Nagano Station and reaches Matsushiro in thirty minutes, which makes it an easy day trip from Nagano. The steps below give the route, and the Sanada Treasure Museum and the Bunbu School are both a short walk from where you get off.
Before boarding, note the Nagano City Tourist Information Center across from the Midori-no-madoguchi ticket counter; it handles enquiries about sights in the city and lends out wheelchairs. It is open from nine in the morning until six in the evening and has no regular closing day, so it suits a late start too.
- From stop 3 at the Zenkoji-guchi exit of Nagano Station, board the Alpico Kotsu Matsushiro-bound line (route 30); the ride takes 30 minutes to Matsushiro.
- Get off the bus at Matsushiro; the Sanada Treasure Museum is about a 3-minute walk from there.
- The Bunbu School is a 7-minute walk from the Matsushiro stop.
Matsushiro Castle Ruins
A guidebook notes that the castle was raised in the Sengoku period by Yamamoto Kansuke on the orders of Takeda Shingen, that it used the lie of the Chikuma River as a natural fortress, and that it is also known as Kaizu Castle. The reconstructed Taikomon gate is where a walk around the Matsushiro Castle ruins begins.
The ruins keep seasonal hours, with a longer day from April to October and a shorter one from November to March, and the site is closed over the year-end and New Year period, so check the table before a late visit. The moat and the inner bailey, with green mountains behind it, are the views to look for.
| Period | Times |
|---|---|
| Castle ruins, April to October | 9:00 to 17:00 (last entry 16:30) |
| Castle ruins, November to March | 9:00 to 16:30 (last entry 16:00) |
| Castle ruins, year-end closure | closed December 29 to January 3 |
Sanada Treasure Museum and the Sanada Residence
The Sanada Treasure Museum is about a three-minute walk from where the bus sets you down, which makes it a sensible first stop. A guidebook notes that it holds roughly fifty thousand items handed down in the Sanada family, former lords of Matsushiro domain, from arms and furnishings to documents and works of art.
The same guidebook notes that the displays include the Aoe great sword, an Important Cultural Property, and letters from Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Ishida Mitsunari, Tokugawa Ieyasu and Takeda Shingen. Admission and hours for both buildings are in the table below; they share one seasonal schedule, and the residence is closed over the year-end and New Year holiday.
A guidebook notes that the Sanada Residence was built in the last years of the Edo period by Sanada Yukinori, the ninth lord, as a home for Teishoin, a senior lady of the household, and that its main house, front gate, seven storehouses and garden survive as a rare example of late-Edo palace architecture, designated a national historic site.
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Treasure Museum admission | 600 yen for general visitors, 100 yen for elementary and junior high school students |
| Treasure Museum hours, April to October | 9:00 to 17:00, last admission 16:30 |
| Treasure Museum hours, November to March | 9:00 to 16:30, last admission 16:00 |
| Sanada Residence admission | 400 yen for general visitors, 100 yen for elementary and junior high school students |
| Sanada Residence hours, April to October | 9:00 to 17:00, entry until 16:30 |
| Sanada Residence hours, November to March | 9:00 to 16:30, entry until 16:00 |
| Sanada Residence closure | December 29 to January 3, year-end and New Year holiday |
Where to stay
Places to stay near Matsushiro, Nagano →
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The Bunbu School
The Bunbu School is a seven-minute walk from the Matsushiro stop. A guidebook notes that it was planned by Sanada Yukitsura, the eighth lord, on the model of the Kodokan in Mito, and completed under the ninth lord, Yukinori; the hall of letters and the halls for swordsmanship, jujutsu, archery and spearmanship still stand on the site.
Admission and hours follow the same seasonal pattern as the Sanada buildings, with the longer day running from April to October and the shorter from November to March. Walking from yard to hall shows how the domain paired letters with the martial arts, and the wooden front gate with its signboard is where that walk starts.
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Bunbu School admission | 400 yen for general visitors, 100 yen for elementary and junior high school students |
| Bunbu School hours, April to October | 9:00 to 17:00, admission until 16:30 |
| Bunbu School hours, November to March | 9:00 to 16:30, admission until 16:00 |
Matsushiro in the Meiji Era
A Meiji-era gazetteer notes that before the Restoration the Sanada family, moved here from Ueda, opened a great domain of a hundred thousand koku, and that Matsushiro prospered as one of the leading castle towns of Shinshu. Walking the castle ruins with that figure in mind helps to grasp the scale of the domain the town once served.
The same gazetteer records that silk reeling took hold in the Meiji years and that the town, together with the farming villages around it, became the centre of the district's silk industry. The Sanada Treasure Museum, with its family documents, is a place to pick up the thread of the domain before those years of silk.
The gazetteer records that after the domains were abolished and prefectures took their place, the town lost momentum because it was awkward to reach, and that its population in the Meiji period stood at a little over eight thousand. A visit to the Bunbu School, completed in the domain's final decades, puts that decline in context.
Lunch, Bicycles and a Hot Spring Bath
For lunch, Higurashian serves a Matsushiro set meal, priced with tax included, and takes last orders in the early afternoon, which suits a museum-first plan. Bicycles can be rented by the half day at the Matsushiro Machiaruki Center, in a morning or an afternoon slot, which fits a loop of the sights listed here.
The center is closed on Wednesdays and over the year-end and New Year period, so plan a Wednesday on foot. To end the day, Golden Hot Water Matsushiro-so offers day-trip bathing with separate rates for adults and elementary school students, and its last admission in the evening leaves room for a bath after the Bunbu School.
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Matsushiro set meal at Higurashian | 1,650 yen (tax included) |
| Higurashian service | 11:00 to 14:30 (last order 14:00) |
| Bicycle rental at the Matsushiro Machiaruki Center, half day (morning until 13:00, or 13:00 to 17:00) | 600 yen |
| Machiaruki Center times | 9:00 to 17:00; closed every Wednesday and over the year-end and New Year period |
| Day-trip bathing at Golden Hot Water Matsushiro-so | 700 yen for adults, 200 yen for elementary school students |
| Matsushiro-so bathing times | 10:00 to 22:00, last admission 21:30 |
Zozan Shrine and a Day Inside Matsushiro
A guidebook notes that Zozan Shrine's principal deity is Sakuma Shozan, the late-Edo thinker and inventor born in Matsushiro domain, revered as a god of wisdom and learning. The grounds are said to be accessible at any time of day. The guidebook describes the goshuin seals as pre-written sheets kept at the shrine office.
In the precinct, the guidebook describes a bronze statue of Shozan at the centre, flanked by statues of Sakamoto Ryoma and Yoshida Shoin, with stone monuments and a relocated tea house connected with him as the other things to see. The worship hall, hung with white curtains marked with a crest, faces a low wooden fence.
Step off the bus and walk about three minutes to the Sanada Treasure Museum. The castle ruins open at nine in the morning from April to October, so they fit before lunch. Higurashian begins its lunch service at eleven. After eating, the Bunbu School, a seven-minute walk from the stop, rounds off the loop, with Zozan Shrine slotted in between. For something arranged ahead of time, browse the activities listed for Matsushiro.