Matsumoto, Nagano

Matsumoto is a city in Nagano Prefecture, Japan, in the former Shinano Province, of which it was the provincial capital from the Heian period onward; it developed further as a castle town under the Tokugawa shogunate during the Edo period and was raised to city status on May 1, 1907. It sits in the mountain ringed Matsumoto Basin, about 75 kilometers south of the prefectural capital Nagano and 167 kilometers from central Tokyo, and was designated a core city on April 1, 2021. As of March 1, 2019, it had approximately 239,466 residents in 105,207 households across 978.47 square kilometers. Its best known landmark is Matsumoto Castle, built more than 400 years ago and designated a Japanese National Treasure.