Matsumoto Castle, renowned for its black exterior, is one of twelve castles in Japan that still has its original wooden keep. Construction began in 1590 under feudal lord Ishikawa Kazumasa, with most of the structure completed by 1593–94. The castle is designated a National Treasure of Japan.
The tour moves through the keep's interior, including the steep stairs, narrow passages, stone-dropping openings, and gun ports built into the structure for defense. It continues to the Tsukimi Yagura, added in the 1630s as a space for poetry and moon-viewing rather than combat, which opens on three sides toward the moat and sky. The castle's survival was not guaranteed: after the Meiji Restoration, the government sold it at auction in 1872 and scheduled it for demolition. Local residents raised funds to buy it back, and a later restoration completed in 1913 with roughly 80% of its cost covered by public donations, kept the building standing.
The tour's second part adds a food experience and a lunch built around dishes tied to Nagano Prefecture. Which food experience runs on a given day depends on availability and season. The two options are a soba-making class followed by lunch, where guests prepare their own noodles by hand, or a miso brewery tour followed by lunch, which includes a walk through a working miso brewery. Both include vegetarian and vegan alternatives.
The tour concludes with a sake tasting. Matsumoto has long supported sake production, fed by a network of spring wells drawing from mountain runoff that surrounds the city. That water, valued for its clarity and mineral balance, plays a direct role in fermentation, shaping the texture and flavor of the finished product. Combined with locally grown rice, it forms the foundation of a regional brewing tradition that has kept sake production rooted in this part of Nagano for centuries.
Your guide will walk you through a tasting of several sake varieties, each reflecting different rice strains, fermentation methods, and aging processes. Between pours, you guide will explain how water quality, seasonal brewing cycles, and rice polishing ratios shape what's in your cup. You will have time to sit, sample, and understand how sake remains part of daily life in Matsumoto.
