Hirado castle
Hirado castle, located in Hirado City on Hirado Island to the northwest of Kyushu, was the seat of Hirado han.
The castle is located on a hill known as Kameoka ("Turtle Hill"), overlooking Hirado harbor from the south. The first castle on the site, Hinotake castle, was built by Matsura Shigenobu (Hôin). Construction began in 1599 and was completed in 1611 but the castle burned down shortly afterwards in 1613.
The Matsura then ruled from a mansion overlooking the harbor from the north for about one hundred years. By the 1670s or 1680s, however, a larger space was needed to accommodate the size of domain administration. Matsura Takashi (lord of Hirado 1689-1713) was named jisha bugyô in 1691 and received permission from the Tokugawa shogunate to rebuild a castle for his domain.
Following roughly fourteen years of construction, from 1704 to 1718, the Matsura took up residence in Hirado castle. It remained the home of the lords and of the domain administration through the end of the Edo period.
The castle was torn down following the Meiji Restoration, and in 1893 the Matsura family took up residence in a new mansion on the location of the former, 17th century, one. This is today the site of the Matsura Historical Museum.
