Matsumae castle has long been the castle of the Matsumae clan. It was built in 1606 and was called the fortress Fukuyama, as the genus of Matsumae in status had no rights to the construction of the castle. Now the name of Matsumae is a small town 90 kilometers from the city of Hakodate, which grew around the castle kind of Matsumae.

The first representative of the genus Takeda Nobuhiro settled on the island in the middle of the XV century. Under his leadership a few Japanese who lived on the island, were United in the struggle against the indigenous people – the Ainu. Takeda Nobuhiro, in particular, suppressed a major uprising of the Ainu in 1457, and then subjugated and all the samurai clans of the southern part of the island. It should be noted that not all members of a militant kind of Matsumae build relationships with indigenous people from a position of strength. So, the fourth Chapter of Kakizaki the Suehiro able to negotiate with the Ainu of peace and trade.

The following local daimyo, Kakizaki Yoshihiro in 1599, during the audience in Osaka changed her name, taking the name of his family's estate, and since then the race became known as the Matsumae. Five years later a new military ruler of the country, Tokugawa Ieyasu established the originating Matsumae ownership of the island, and a year later, in 1606, Yoshihiro built a castle of Matsumae. Successor Yoshihiro in 1616 became the Matsumae Kinjiro, which three years later was destroyed on the coast near the castle all samurai fortifications and settlements, and their inhabitants were forced to move in the adjoining town.

Members of the genus of Matsumae played a significant role in the protection and defense of the Northern borders of Japan, and in the continued expansion of the Japanese on the island and subordination of the indigenous people. However, the right to castle, they acquired only in the mid-nineteenth century.

The castle, built in 1606, is not preserved. In 1637, the castle burned down, was rebuilt, but was again burned down in 1949. Ten years later it was again reconstructed, but in a fire-resistant (concrete) form. Original only remain the main gate of the castle, which is a historical and cultural monument.