Matsue Castle is one of only twelve Japanese castles whose main keeps survive from the feudal era, and one of five designated National Treasures. It stands in central Matsue, Shimane Prefecture, on a rise near Lake Shinji rather than directly on the shoreline. The dark exterior and roofline have earned it the nickname Chidori-jo, or Plover Castle. Its appeal is not a polished reconstruction: the timber keep itself is an unusually intact piece of early-seventeenth-century architecture.
Horio Yoshiharu chose the site in 1607 and led the building project with his grandson Tadaharu, who had inherited the domain. The keep was completed by 1611, near the start of the Edo period. After the Horio line ended, Kyogoku Tadataka briefly ruled the domain, followed in 1638 by Matsudaira Naomasa and his descendants. The castle, moats and surrounding town were planned together as the administrative centre of Izumo, joining military defence with the government of a regional domain.
