Matsuyama

Shikoku, Japan · City

Dogo is one of the oldest bathhouses in Japan, and its main building has just come through a full restoration with no scaffolding and nothing closed off; a hundred metres away sits a cheaper annexe with shorter queues, fitted out by Ehime craftsmen in Tobe ceramics and iyo kasuri weave. Matsuyama is also Japan's haiku capital, with red postboxes anyone can drop a verse into, and it holds eight of the 88 pilgrimage temples.

The essentials

Getting there

Train — Train or flight from Osaka/Hiroshima

What it is genuinely strong in

🛌 Pure relaxation

Frequently asked questions about Matsuyama

What to do in Matsuyama: 43 activities

• Dogo Onsen 2 h must-see

  One of Japan's oldest onsen, and a possible inspiration for 'Spirited Away'. The full restoration of the main building was completed in July 2024: there is no longer any scaffolding or any closed rooms.

• Dogo Onsen Bekkan Asuka-no-Yu 1.25 h

  An annex opened in 2017, 100 metres from the main building, with Asuka-period architecture and decoration commissioned from Ehime craftspeople: Tobe ceramics, Iyo kasuri weaving and Sakurai lacquer. Shorter queues and cheaper than the Honkan.

• Ichibancho, Nibancho and Sanbancho 3.5 h

  The grid of three parallel streets crossed by the Okaido arcade is the largest nightlife district in Ehime: tachinomi, izakaya, sake bars and the illuminated castle in the background. Nibancho is the densest of the three.

• Ishite-ji Temple 1 h

  Temple number 51 on the 88-temple Shikoku pilgrimage, known for its Niomon Gate, a National Treasure, and its stone cave tunnel.

• Niihama: fifty-four two-tonne floats and a mayor asking for peace 4 h Niihama · 70 min only 16-18 October

  One of Shikoku's great festivals and the best reason to leave Matsuyama in October: fifty-four adult taikodai, floats with a drum inside, each carried on the shoulders of around a hundred and fifty men, spread across eight districts of the city. The date comes first, because almost nobody gets it right. The town hall programme runs four days, 15 to 18, but in its district-by-district grid only one of the eight, Ojoin, has a column for the 15th, and it labels those events as the district running on its own; the other seven run on the 16th, 17th and 18th, and Ojoin has no column for the 18th. It is three days for almost everyone with Ojoin a day ahead, so the pages announcing 15 to 18 for all and the ones announcing a flat 16 to 18 are each half right. The biggest event is the toitsu-yose at the Yamane ground, which the 2026 programme puts on Saturday the 17th from 12:30 to 17:00 with twenty floats and one children's float, with a free shuttle from the south exit of Niihama station between 10:30 and 17:30. On the size of a float the town hall publishes nothing, neither height nor weight, on any of its pages; the prefecture's tourism body and an independent source agree on around five and a half metres tall and some three tonnes, and a third says six and a half and two. The origin is undated too, and the town hall says so itself: it writes that no document has been found that would date the birth of the taikodai. The earliest appear in writings of the Bunsei era, between 1818 and 1830, and what made them enormous was money, because with the Besshi copper mine the districts began competing and the floats grew from mid-Meiji on. And this is worth knowing before you go: the mayor publishes a formal request to the organising committee every year that the festival be held in peace; the word for the clash between floats appears on no municipal page; and one independent source says there have been years with trouble over the routes and that people sometimes call this one of Japan's three great fighting festivals, without attributing that to anyone. Watching is free. There are paid stands booked online through the Ehime tourism association, and it is worth not leaving it late, because in 2026 the window closed on 30 September; the sources disagree on where they are and none publishes a price. Parking, the prefecture says, there is none. And on heritage: the town hall's own register of cultural properties designates three intangible folk festivals of the municipality and this is not one of the three, nor does it appear in the national or prefectural tables; the only designation that turns up here dates from 2009 and protects the stone terraces of the Yamane ground, not the festival. The attendance figures do not resemble one another, from a hundred thousand to two hundred and sixty thousand depending on who you read. You come by limited express from Matsuyama in an hour or an hour and ten depending on the source, and the town hall asks people not to drive. Nobody publishes what happens if it rains.

• Saka no Ue no Kumo Museum, by Tadao Ando 1.25 h

  A triangular exposed-concrete building devoted to Shiba Ryotaro's novel about the Akiyama brothers and Masaoka Shiki, that is, about the Matsuyama that manufactured Japan's military modernisation. Closed Mondays.

• Taimeshi, jakoten and the cooking of Ehime 1.5 h

  Sea bream taimeshi comes in two rival versions, the Matsuyama one cooked and the Uwajima one raw with egg. Alongside it come jakoten, a fried cake of small-fish paste, five-coloured goshiki somen, botchan dango and taruto filled with yuzu bean paste.

• The eight pilgrimage temples inside Matsuyama 7 h

  Numbers 46 to 53 all lie within the city limits: it is the largest concentration of temples of the 88-temple circuit in a single municipality. The stretch from 46 to 51, about 20 kilometres, is among the most walkable of the whole pilgrimage.

• The haiku post boxes 1.5 h

  Matsuyama is Japan's haiku capital: Shiki's home town and the city of 'Botchan'. Red post boxes are scattered around Dogo, the castle and the station where anyone can drop in a haiku of their own, and the best are selected and published. The city also has more than 200 monuments with verses carved into them.

• Bansuiso 0.75 h

  A French-style villa from 1922 built by Count Hisamatsu at the foot of the castle; it is the best preserved Western architecture in Shikoku. Closed Mondays.

• Dogo Onsen spring festival 3 h only 19-21 Mar

  From 19 to 21 March, with longevity mochi handed out, parades, folk performing arts and a women's mikoshi contest. Free.

• Ehime Museum of Art 1.5 h

  Almost 12,000 works inside the castle park: Monet, Cezanne, Yokoyama Taikan and local artists, for little more than 300 yen. Closed Mondays.

• Hamakaze Kaido by bicycle 7 h booking

  An official 67-kilometre coastal cycling route at beginner level, almost entirely flat, running from Imabari to the door of Dogo Onsen Honkan. It is the way to link the Shimanami Kaido with Matsuyama without taking the train; in July and August it is far too hot.

• Historic ryokan of Dogo 14 h booking

  The Yamatoya Honten has a noh stage in its courtyard and programmes performances for its guests; the Dogokan and the Setsugetsuka round out the district's classic offering.

• Isaniwa Shrine 0.75 h

  A Shinto shrine with striking architecture and a long stone staircase, located near the Dogo district.

• Iyo-kasuri indigo dyeing 1 h booking

  Iyo kasuri was one of Japan's three great kasuri textiles. At the centre in Kinuyama you dye a scarf of your own and see original looms and school uniforms from the period; confirm opening before going.

• Kashima Island 5 h

  An uninhabited islet within the city limits, in the Hojo district, three minutes away by ferry: free-roaming sika deer, a beach, easy hiking and a viewpoint declared a sacred spot for lovers.

• Matsuyama autumn festival 4 h only 7 Oct

  The climax is the hachiawase on 7 October at 6:30am in front of Dogo Onsen station: eight fighting mikoshi crash into each other twice each and then climb the 135 steps of Isaniwa.

• Matsuyama Castle 1.5 h

  An original castle atop a hill, reachable by chairlift.

• Matsuyama Yakyuken Odori 4 h only early August

  A dance festival in baseball uniforms born out of a game from 1924, with stages on Okaido and in the castle park in early August. Registration to dance is open.

• Mikan and Ehime citrus 1.5 h booking

  The mikan is the prefecture's symbol and even appears on its flag. In season there is picking at farms on the hillsides and mandarin juice taps at the station and the airport.

• Mitsu no Watashi, the road that is a boat 0.25 h

  A small boat crosses 80 metres of channel between Minatoyama and Mitsu, free of charge, from 7am to 7pm. Legally it is a section of municipal road Takahama number 2, and locals use it daily.

• Mitsuhama morning fish market 1.5 h

  A neighbourhood fish market on the second and fourth Saturday of the month, 8am to 11am, with takoyaki and fried jakoten stalls in the car park. By 10am almost everything is sold; fish is butchered in plain view and the smell is strong.

• Nakajima Island and the Kutsuna archipelago 8 h booking

  The largest island of the archipelago, also part of Matsuyama, with a ferry from Takahama port: a cycling loop, beaches, barbecue and a night sky free of light pollution. In May the whole island smells of citrus blossom.

• Okudogo Ichiyu no Mori 3 h booking

  A hot spring complex in the Suemachi valley, ten minutes by car from Dogo but still within the city itself, with one of the largest open-air baths in western Japan.

• Sake breweries of Matsuyama 1.75 h booking

  Several breweries in the city offer a tour and tasting, one of them right next to Dogo Onsen; Ehime sake tends towards a distinctly sweeter profile than sake from the north.

• Sky walk on Mount Kanmuriyama 0.75 h

  A viewpoint and free foot bath above the rooftops of the hot spring district, open from 6am to 9pm. It is the best place to see Dogo from above without paying anything.

• The mandala tunnel of Ishite-ji's Okuno-in 0.75 h

  Behind temple number 51 begins a dark tunnel lined with statues that opens into a spherical dome full of carved figures. It is one of the strangest religious structures in Japan; there is no staff on site, so go by day and with company.

• Tsubaki-no-Yu, the locals' bath 0.75 h

  The same alkaline water as Dogo Onsen Honkan, with no tourism at all and for little more than 400 yen. There is a three-bath pass valid for two days covering all three Dogo bathhouses.

• Botchan Karakuri Clock 0.5 h

  An animated mechanical clock in front of Dogo Onsen Station that reenacts scenes from Natsume Soseki's novel 'Botchan' every hour.

• Cosmo Theater planetarium 1 h

  The municipal planetarium in Minatomachi: honestly the only thing in Matsuyama that fits under technology or science.

• Dogo Park and the ruins of Yuzuki Castle 1 h

  Remains of the Kono clan's medieval castle with its moat, among the 100 best historic parks in Japan; inside is the Shiki Museum, and in March it fills with cherry blossom.

• Ehime Children's Castle 5 h

  A huge children's park on a wooded hill in the south of the municipality, with zip lines, a monorail, a play castle and boats.

• Ehime Mandarin Pirates baseball 3 h

  Independent league baseball at Botchan Stadium: very cheap, very local and with none of the apparatus of the professional league.

• Football and basketball in Matsuyama 2.5 h booking

  Ehime FC play at the Ningineer Stadium and the Ehime Orange Vikings, of the basketball league, at the community centre; the team name mixes the mandarin with the pirates of the Inland Sea.

• Giyaman Glass Museum in Dogo 0.75 h

  Some 300 pieces of Japanese glass from the Edo, Meiji and Taisho eras, with a garden lit up at night, in the hot spring district itself.

• Mount Takanawa 3.5 h

  A 986-metre mountain in the north of the municipality with views over the Inland Sea and the city, and an accessible hiking route.

• Okaido and Gintengai Shopping Arcades 1.5 h

  Covered shopping arcades in central Matsuyama, with shops, restaurants, and the greatest concentration of street life in the city.

• Old Mitsuhama quarter 1.5 h

  Narrow lanes of fishermen's houses, converted warehouses and cafes, with no tourism at all; combine it with the ferry and the fish market.

• Ropeway and Ninomaru Garden 1 h

  A ropeway ride up to the castle, with a historic garden on the clan's former grounds.

• Shiki Memorial Museum 1 h

  A museum dedicated to Masaoka Shiki, the haiku poet born in Matsuyama, featuring manuscripts and personal belongings.

• Shikido, the house of Masaoka Shiki 0.5 h

  A reconstruction of the poet's birthplace with his original desk, for 50 yen: the cheapest admission in the city. Next to it stands a historic steam tram on display.

• Historic Botchan Train 0.5 h

  A replica of a period steam locomotive, inspired by the novel by Natsume Soseki.

What only happens on specific dates

• Dogo Onsen spring festival 19-21 Mar
• Matsuyama Yakyuken Odori early August
• Niihama: fifty-four two-tonne floats and a mayor asking for peace 16-18 October
• Matsuyama autumn festival 7 Oct

Chains well with

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