Matsuyama Castle｜Azaleas, Hydrangeas, and Cats in the Honmaru Plaza (May 24, 2026)

Matsuyama Castle, a historic hilltop castle located in Matsuyama City, Ehime Prefecture, Japan, offers beautiful seasonal scenery throughout the year.

I arrived at the Honmaru Plaza of Matsuyama Castle.

At 6:05 p.m. on May 24, 2026, the Honmaru Plaza of Matsuyama Castle was filled with the dazzling light of the setting sun. Long shadows of the rows of cherry trees stretched across the ground. Although it was still fairly bright, there were hardly any tourists left in the plaza.

Squinting my eyes against the bright sun, I gazed at the pink azalea blossoms and the main keep of Matsuyama Castle.

The sun sinking toward the Seto Inland Sea was almost too bright to look at, yet watching the slightly lonely evening scenery and feeling the day come to an end was somehow comforting.

Some of the flowers had already begun to fall, but the azaleas were still blooming vigorously. The view of Matsuyama City seen with masses of pink azalea blossoms in the foreground was beautiful.

The main keep of Matsuyama Castle is beautiful under a completely clear blue sky, but it is just as lovely on a day like this, with thin clouds drifting across the blue. The atmosphere of the castle gradually being covered in shadow at dusk also felt very nice.

On today's hike up to Matsuyama Castle, I was able to add the 15th stamp to my Matsuyama Castle Climbing Walking stamp sheet (115 stamps in total so far). I was a little happy that I could capture azalea flowers in the background of the stamp sheet in the photo.

Just as I was about to photograph the pink azaleas blooming right next to the main keep of Matsuyama Castle, I heard a meow. When I looked over, a cat appeared from under a bench and walked along, meowing repeatedly.

The way the cat walked while adorably meowing was so charming that I recorded a video and uploaded it to YouTube.

I thought there was only one cat, but then I noticed another. The two cats were later fed their evening meal by a local feeder who appeared on the scene.

After watching the cats, I wandered around the area near the main keep of Matsuyama Castle and spotted a sparrow. It was walking on the ground near the white earthen wall with distinctive square loopholes, which stands beside the Shichikumon Gate of Matsuyama Castle.

Its black beak, brown head, tiny round black eyes, fluffy white chest feathers, pale pink legs, and small body--every feature of the sparrow was irresistibly cute.

I was reminded once again that Matsuyama Castle is a place where you can see both cats and sparrows and feel your heart healed.

I continued wandering around, hoping to find more cats.

The restoration work following the landslide that occurred on the east slope of Matsuyama Castle just before 4 a.m. on July 12, 2024, was almost complete as of May 24, 2026. It had been a long construction period of nearly two years.
(Added on June 20, 2026: According to the official website of Matsuyama City, the restoration work was completed on May 29, 2026.)

While I was looking at the east slope, I noticed a cat walking along the top of a stone wall on the far side of the safety fence.

This cute tabby cat was the same one that had been walking near the azaleas earlier. I was probably standing quite far away, using the optical zoom of my Canon digital camera, but judging from the cat's direct gaze toward the camera, it must have noticed me. Watching the cat walk right along the edge of the cliff-like stone wall, I felt nervous, worried it might fall, but the cat walked with complete confidence. It was a remarkably bold cat. Its tail seemed to be very short, and its right ear was clipped, so it is probably a male community cat (a "sakura cat") that is being well cared for.

As I continued walking around the Honmaru Plaza of Matsuyama Castle, I noticed that hydrangeas had begun to bloom.

The hydrangeas were blooming around the old well.

The hydrangea flowers were a pale blue. The hydrangeas I saw at Matsuyama Castle today were all this light blue color. Many had yet to bloom, so perhaps other colors will appear later. I thought to myself that I should come back another day to see them again.

In the Honmaru Plaza of Matsuyama Castle, there is an old well, although it is no longer in use.

An information panel beside the well provides the following explanation:

This well is said to have been constructed by digging down to a spring and stacking stones when a valley was filled in during the castle's construction. It is 44.2 meters deep, with 9 meters of water. Until the war, it was equipped with a bucket-and-rope mechanism so that people could draw and drink the cold water.
The well house was destroyed in an air raid in July 1945, but it was rebuilt in March 1952 as the first structure to be reconstructed within the castle grounds after the war.
There were various legends about the well: (1) it had no bottom, (2) there was a secret passage to the main keep and Ninomaru, (3) large bats lived inside, and (4) gold and silver coins were thrown in to purify the water. However, all of these stories have been proven untrue.

(Note: The Japanese word for the bucket-and-rope mechanism, "tsurube," is written with the characters for "well bucket.")

The well is covered with a lattice lid so that no one can fall in, and a fence surrounds it to keep people from getting too close. I had been focused on the not-yet-blooming hydrangeas growing right up against this fence, watching them as they prepared to flower, so at first I didn't notice. Then I saw someone ignoring the fence and confidently approaching the well... a cat.

It was that same tabby cat again. Perhaps this cute cat's walking route is: azaleas in the Honmaru Plaza of Matsuyama Castle → along the stone wall → around the well. One day, I would love for this cat to show me its full walking course around Matsuyama Castle.

It was now 6:44 p.m. on May 24, 2026. Unfortunately, there were many clouds in the western sky, so I couldn't see the setting sun clearly, but I was still glad to enjoy the beautiful evening sky, the clouds, and the calm, pleasant view of Matsuyama City and the Seto Inland Sea. This spot with a bench on the west side of the Honmaru Plaza is the perfect place to photograph the city, the sea, and the sunset. It is one of my favorite places. I hope to come back again to see another beautiful sunset.

While descending the hill of Matsuyama Castle, I encountered another cat, but it was already quite dark and my photos came out blurry. I hope I can photograph that cat properly the next time we meet.

This is the hairpin curve on the downhill section of the Kencho-ura trail of Matsuyama Castle. The time was 7:05 p.m. on May 24, 2026. As you can see in the photo, it had grown quite dark, yet it was still not completely night, and the streetlights along the trail were already lit. It feels a little early for them to come on, but their light always makes me feel safe. Thanks to these lights, I can walk this path comfortably even after dark, and I am always grateful for them.

The entrance of the Kencho-ura trail of Matsuyama Castle came into view. The building in the photo is the Ehime Prefectural Assembly Hall, which stands next to the main Ehime Prefectural Government building.

Visiting Matsuyama Castle once again brought peace to my heart today. I know I will have to come back.