Matsue

Matsue is a small port-town on the north coast of the Eastern Country, ruled by the Yashida clan. The town has a long history as a stronghold for the Tribe (particularly the Kikuta family) whom the Yashida often hire for their services as merchants, spies and assassins to enforce their own control. With it's elevation and coastal position, Matsue's climate is quite cold. During the winter, the heavy snows cut it off from the rest of the Three Countries; Otori Takeo, who spent nearly his entire exile with the Tribe there, describes it as "austere".

Naturally isolated by its' mountainous position, Matsue contains a number of soybean distilleries for making tofu (soybean paste) soy sauce, and miso. Most of these distilleries, as well as all the moneylending houses, were run by the Tribe prior to Takeo's rule; they also have facilities for training new members of the Tribe in combat. A few taverns and teahouses also exist. The Yashida have a small wooden castle at the center of the town. A few small mountain villages surround it, where most of the crops are grown; soybeans are presumably the most common crop, though rice and sweet potatoes are also cultivated. Matsue's harbor is very small and does not allow for much of a fishing fleet.

After the Battle of Yaegahara, despite being vassals of the Tohan Clan, the Yashida largely kept Matsue and its' inhabitants out of the Tohan-Otori conflict; they were untouched by the fall of Inuyama and largely carried on as they had before, ignoring Arai Daiichi's calls to destroy the Tribe. Although not participating (and untouched) during the War of the Otori Succession, Matsue was affected by its' outcome: the Tribe were no longer under the Yashida's employ, as the Kikuta were forced to flee, and the few remaining Tribe members declared their allegiance to Otori Takeo.