Matsusaka developed as a commercial center during the
Sengoku period, and
Oda Nobukatsu, the younger son of
Oda Nobunaga built a
castle in the area in 1580. The area came under the control of
Gamō Ujisato shortly thereafter, and the Gamō began construction of a castle in the and named the site "Matsusaka," meaning "slope (坂) covered with pines (松)" in 1588.
Matsusaka Castle was the center of the short-lived
Matsusaka Domain in the early
Tokugawa shogunate, but for most of the
Edo period, the castle was the eastern outpost of
Kishu Domain based at
Wakayama Castle. Following the
Meiji restoration, the area became part of Mie Prefecture. The town of Matsusaka was created on April 1, 1889 with the establishment of the modern municipalities system. The second
kanji character of Matsusaka was changed to 阪 from 坂 in those days. On March 26, 1893, 1318 houses in the town were destroyed in a fire. Matsusaka was raised to city status on February 1, 1933. The city suffered only light damage in
World War II, when an air raid killed four people on February 4, 1945. About 700 houses in the city were destroyed by a fire on December 16, 1951. On October 15, 1956, a major
railway accident occurred at
Rokken Station on the outskirts of the city, killing 42 people. On August 1, 1982,
Typhoon Bess left nine people dead in its wake. The city officially celebrated its 500th anniversary in 1988. On January 1, 2005, the city expanded to its present borders, with the absorption the towns of
Mikumo and
Ureshino (both from
Ichishi District), and the towns of
Iinan and
Iitaka (both from
Iinan District). ==Government==