Clear the Matsumoto Local Quiz and earn the Matsumoto Local title. Want to know Matsumoto & Azumino even better, or already confident? The tougher courses are next.
Two landscapes share one basin here: a castle town laced with wells and waterways, and a fan-shaped plain where spring water feeds wasabi fields. The quiz moves between them. On the Matsumoto side, questions cover the castle, the former Kaichi School, sanzoku-yaki, and the folk-craft tradition that earned the town its artisan reputation. On the Azumino side, they reach the Daio Wasabi Farm and the old Chikuni Kaido route that once carried goods inland from the sea. Kamikochi's Taisho Pond and Kappa Bridge appear as well, along with the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival. Locals absorb these things without noticing; the quiz asks whether you have. The lower ranks make a fair warm-up before you climb toward the keep.
Q1.Which castle, like Matsumoto Castle, has a keep designated a National Treasure?
Himeji Castle
Osaka Castle
Nagoya Castle
Kumamoto Castle
Reveal the correct answer
Correct answerHimeji Castle
Himeji Castle is correct. Only five castles nationwide have keeps designated National Treasures, and Matsumoto Castle is one of them. It first received the designation in 1936 under the old National Treasure Preservation Law, then was redesignated in 1952 when the Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties took effect.
Q2.The present designation of the Former Kaichi School building. Choose the correct answer.
Important Cultural Property
Prefectural Treasure
National Treasure
Historic Site
Reveal the correct answer
Correct answerNational Treasure
National Treasure is correct. On September 30, 2019, it became the first modern school building designated a National Treasure. Completed in 1876, the building blends Japanese and Western design in the pseudo-Western style typical of early Meiji-era school architecture, and stands as a landmark in the history of Japanese education.
Q3.The common nickname of the Chikuni-kaido road, which carried salt and seafood inland from the Sea of Japan coast through Azumino. Choose the correct answer.
the Rice Road
the Salt Road
the Silk Road
the Tea Road
Reveal the correct answer
Correct answerthe Salt Road
The Salt Road is correct. Linking Itoigawa on the Sea of Japan coast with Matsumoto, it carried salt and seafood inland by ox and porter relay. Stretches crossing Azumino still preserve traces of the post towns where those carriers once rested along the route.
Q4.If you go see Matsumoto Castle's keep in person, what do its exterior walls actually look like?
entirely white plaster
coated in red lacquer
black weatherboarding from the base to the top story
clad in copper plates
Reveal the correct answer
Correct answerblack weatherboarding from the base to the top story
Black weatherboarding from the base to the top story is correct. It is often contrasted with the white walls of Himeji Castle, and the dark exterior preserves the early Edo-period design. The black coating was originally made with ink, and it has been finished in black lacquer since the mid-20th-century restoration.
Q5.The historical written form of Kamikochi. Which answer matches the official account?
上河内 (Kamikawachi, “upper river valley”)
神高地 (Kamikōchi, “divine highland”)
神垣内 (Kamikochi, “within the divine enclosure”)
上神内 (Kamikōnai, “upper divine precinct”)
Reveal the correct answer
Correct answer神垣内 (Kamikochi, “within the divine enclosure”)
神垣内 (Kamikochi, “within the divine enclosure”) is correct. Until the Edo period, it was remote woodland rarely visited except by forestry workers, regarded almost as sacred ground set apart from human settlement. The old spelling tells a history quite different from the resort area it has since become. Serious visits by mountaineers and researchers only began in earnest after the Meiji era, and the area's history since has balanced development against protection.
