Maruoka Castle

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Préfecture de Fukui

Standing on a small knoll in the middle of the Sakai plain, in the north of Fukui Prefecture, Maruoka Castle preserves one of the twelve original keeps (tenshu) still standing in Japan. Founded in 1576 by Shibata Katsutoyo, nephew and adopted son of the powerful Shibata Katsuie, it later served as the seat of the Maruoka Domain under the Honda and then the Arima clans until 1871. Its compact keep, with two roofs and three interior floors, rests on a stone base more than six metres high; it is distinguished by its roof of stone tiles cut from local rock, its shachihoko ornaments and its stone-dropping openings. Having collapsed in the 1948 Fukui earthquake, it was reassembled in 1955, reusing most of its original beams and pillars. Recent dendrochronological dating nevertheless suggests a major reconstruction in the late 1620s. Nicknamed "Kasumi-ga-jō", the castle of mist, after a legend that a fog concealed it from attackers, it now overlooks Kasumigajō Park, famous for its roughly 400 cherry trees and its spring festival lit with lanterns.