Construction began in 1852 under the 8th daimyo of Matsushiro Domain, Sanada Yukitsura, though the Sanada clan had been running smaller schools since the 6th daimyo, Sanada Yukihiro, opened one in 1758. The timing was not gentle. A devastating fire swept through the Matsushiro castle town during construction, destroying much of the surrounding district and delaying completion until 1855. When the doors finally opened, the school occupied 1,500 square meters of teaching space on a 3,089-square-meter site. The Sanada clan, who had governed Matsushiro for ten generations since relocating from Ueda in 1622, poured their vision of a modern warrior class into every room.

The curriculum was radical for its time. Sakuma Shozan, the brilliant Edo-period scholar who advocated opening Japan to the wider world, shaped the school's philosophy. Students studied Chinese literature, Ogasawara-ryu etiquette, Chinese medicine, and martial arts alongside rangaku, the body of Western knowledge that filtered into isolationist Japan through Dutch traders. Western medicine, military science, and artillery all had a place in the classroom. In a striking departure from every other han school in the country, the Matsushiro school did not teach Confucianism, and no shrine to Confucius stood within the grounds. This was a school looking forward, not back.

As Japan's feudal order crumbled during the Bakumatsu period of the 1860s, the school's emphasis shifted heavily toward Western military science. French military instructors arrived to teach modern tactics. The domain also recruited Takeda Ayasaburo, a former instructor at the shogunate's Kaiseijo academy and the architect of the famous Goryokaku star fort in Hokkaido. These were not theoretical exercises. Japan was tearing itself apart, and the Sanada clan wanted their samurai ready for whatever came next. After the Meiji Restoration swept away the old order, the complex continued as a military academy until the abolition of the han system in 1871.

Rather than fall to ruin like so many Edo-period structures, the school simply changed uniforms. From 1871 onward, it served as the Matsushiro Elementary School under the new national education system, a role it filled for nearly a century until the 1960s. A careful renovation from 1973 to 1978 restored the buildings to their original character, and the school opened as a museum. Today visitors can try their hand at archery on the original range, practice martial arts in the dojo, or participate in tea ceremony and flower arrangement in the same rooms where samurai sons once sat. The school was designated a National Historic Site of Japan in 1953, recognizing its singular status as a complete, surviving han school.

The school sits within a broader samurai landscape. The ruins of Matsushiro Castle are a short walk away, and the Sanada Residence gives a sense of how the ruling family lived. A darker chapter lies beneath the surrounding mountains: during World War II, an elaborate network of tunnels was dug by forced laborers in 1944-45, intended to shelter the Emperor and Imperial government in case of an Allied ground invasion. Japan's surrender halted the project when the tunnels were roughly 75 percent complete. A 500-meter section is open to visitors, a sobering counterpoint to the school's more hopeful story of education and reform.