Located in Fukui Prefecture just north of Fukui city is Japan’s oldest castle: Maruoka Castle. Dating back to the early 1600s, it is the oldest castle still standing in Japan today.

About Maruoka Castle

Construction

Maruoka dates back to the late Sengogku Era, also known as the Japanese Period of Warring States (i.e. huge civil war period); it was built in 1576. This is right after Ichijodani – now known as the “Pompeii of Japan” – was destroyed in 1573.

Also known as the “mist castle” (more on that below), it was built on the orders of Shibata Katsutoyo – the nephew and adopted son of one of Oda Nobunaga’s leading generals. In terms of its design, it was nothing special at the time; just a small fort built using similar elements to even earlier fortresses from 100 years prior. One thing that was new (although not only present at Maruoka Castle) was building the fortress on top of a high stone base on top of a hill. Several attempts were made before it was successful.

According to legend, the castle keep, called a tenshu, kept collapsing. A vassal suggested that a human sacrifice was needed to appease the gods so that it did not continue fall down. A poor, one-eyed woman was chosen, and she agreed with one condition: Shibata Katsutoyo had to take in her two children and the boy be trained as a samurai. When he agreed, she stood in the centre and the rock foundation was built around her with the tenshu on top, eventually crushing her but allowing construction to be completed.

However, Katsutoyo did not fulfil his promise. He had to move to another province and was not able to take her son with him. It is said that her spirit caused the moat to overflow with the spring rain in April every year, causing death and destruction.

Whther this story/legend is true, we will never know.

History

As a functional castle

Shibata Katsutoyo was killed in 1583 and the castle was given to the Aoyama clan, although they were on the losing side of the ensewing conflict. The castle was then taken by Tokugawa Ieyasu and given to his son, who passed it on to Imamura Moritsugu, one of his retainers.

During this time, the castle passed between various retainers, most recently the Honda clan. Due to their success in various battles, the size and importance of the Maruoka domain also increased. However, in 1695, the Tokugawa Shogunate deemed the successive rulers increasingly incompetent and the Honda clan was replaced by the Arima clan, which ruled for 8 generations until the Meiji Restoration disbanded the old feudal lord system in 1871.

During its time as an active castle, it earned the name “mist castle” because an time it would be attacked, a thick fog/mist would form, obscuring the castle and making it more difficult to attack. Due to this happening consistently under threat, it gained the nickname.

Afterwards

While castles across Japan were demolished by the new Meiji government, the keep at Maruoka was spared (although many buildings and gates were demolished). In 1901 the town of Maruoka bought what remained of the castle grounds, keep and tenshu and turned it into a park.

Unfortunately in 1948, a giant earthquake struck the Fukui area, destroying the tenshu (and the keep that sat on it). In 1955 it was rebuilt using 70% of the original pillars and 60% of the original wooden beams. At this time, a reinforced concrete frame was used as the base to hold the wood and stones, with the tenshu built on top/around it.

So if it was destroyed, why is it still considered one of the 12 original castles in Japan? It comes down to a simple definition: it still has its original tenshu. For all other castles in Japan, the tenshu was lost between the Meiji Restoration and the time that the modern version of the castle was rebuilt.

Getting there and what to do at Maruoka Castle

Getting to Maruoka Castle from Fukui Station is simple; the number 31 bus goes directly from the west entrance of Fukui Station and ends at the front of the castle. Allternatively, the number 32 bus also goes to Maruoka but not to the castle. Instead you need to get off at the 丸岡中央商店街 (Maruoka Central Shopping District) stop. Finally, the 39 and 36 also go through Maruoka. For this route, you need to get off at the 丸岡本町 (Maruoka Honmachi) stop and walk a couple of minutes to the entrance to the castle.

The castle costs ¥450 for an adult ticket. This includes entrance to the inner part of the keep (inside the walls), the interior of the keep (the building at the very top of the hill), as well as the museum, which has some artefacts (e.g. armour) on display.

Additionally, entrance to the Brief Message from the Heart Museum is also included. It is also called “Japan’s Shortest Messages Museum” (in Japanese) and was the Edo Period version of Twitter/X, many of which had a lot of meaning (and multiple meanings) contained in the fewer number of brushstrokes possible. In 1993, a competition was held to emulate this style of the Honda clan, which is seen as an art form. The winning submissions were chosen and feature in this museum. However, to really enjoy this museum, you need to understand Japanese to a fluent level.

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