is a hirayama-style Japanese castle located in the Maruoka neighbourhood of the city of Sakai, Fukui Prefecture, in the Hokuriku region of Japan. It also called due to the legend that whenever an enemy approaches the castle, a thick mist appears and hides it. Built at the end of the Sengoku period, the castle was occupied by a succession of daimyō of Maruoka Domain under the Edo period Tokugawa shogunate. The site is now a public park noted for its sakura. The castle's relatively small tenshu (castle keep) claims to be the oldest in the country, a claim which is challenged by both Inuyama Castle and Matsumoto Castle.
Background
Maruoka Castle is located on top of a small hill in the plains north of the city of Fukui. The area around the foot of the hill was levelled, and protected by ramparts and a pentagonal-shaped moat. The castle is located on the Hokurikudō highway connecting Kaga Province with Echizen Province, at the juncture of the Mino Kaidō highway connecting inland Mino Province with the Sea of Japan.
History
Construction
Maruoka Castle is considered to have been constructed in 1576 by Shibata Katsutoyo, who was the nephew and adopted son of Shibata Katsuie, one of Oda Nobunaga's leading generals.
According to the legend of "O-shizu Hitobashira" the castle was constructed with a human pillar. During construction the stone base of the tenshu kept collapsing no matter how many times it was piled up. A vassal suggested that they should make someone a human sacrifice (hitobashira) to appease the gods. O-shizu, a one-eyed woman who had two children and lived a poor life, was selected. She resolved to become the sacrifice on the condition that one of her children be taken in by Katsutoyo and made a samurai. Standing in position the base stones were positioned around her, until they eventually crushed her to death.
Although built in the Momoyama period (1575-1600) the design is more indicative of earlier fortresses of the Sengoku period (1477-1575) . As it was being sited on top of a low hill it was decided to mount the tenshu on a high stone base in order to gain additional height. However at the time successful techniques of constructing such a steep faced base were still in their infancy, especially when using rough uncut stones (known as nozurazumi) in a steeply inclined base as adopted at Maruoka.
Tokugawa shogunate
After Shibata Katsutoyo died of illness during the Battle of Shizugatake in 1583, the castle was given to the Aoyama clan. However, the Aoyama sided with the Western Army under Ishida Mitsunari during the Battle of Sekigahara and were thus dispossessed by the victorious Tokugawa Ieyasu. Ieyasu awarded Echizen Province to his son, Yūki Hideyasu, who in turn created a 26,000 koku holding centered at Maruoka for his retainer, Imamura Moritsugu. In 1613, due to an O-Ie Sōdō within Fukui Domain, the Tokugawa shogunate raised Maruoka Domain to 40,000 koku and assigned it to Honda Narishige, the son of Honda Shigetsugu, one of Ieyasu's leading generals. Due to Honda Narishige's efforts at the Siege of Osaka in 1624, the kokudaka of the domain was further raised to 46,300 koku. His son and grandson completed the castle and the surrounding jōkamachi. However, his great-grandson, Honda Shigemasu was an alcoholic and incompetent, and was dispossessed by the shogunate in 1695. At that time, the structure of the windows on the top floor was changed from sliding doors to push-up windows.
The castle was re-designated an Important Cultural Property in 1950 under the revised Law for Protection of Cultural Properties. A number of the castle gates also survive in private hands, including one at the temple of Kōzen-ji in Komatsu, Ishikawa and one at the temple of Renshō-ji in the city of Awara, Fukui.
Investigations into its construction date
The Maruoka Castle Research and Research Committee led by (Junichi Yoshida from the Fukui University of Technology) was commissioned by the Board of Education of Sakai City to survey the castle. By dating the timber used in the construction of the tenshu from dendrochronology, radiocarbon concentration, and oxygen isotope ratio, they reported after four years of investigations in March 2019 that most of the through pillars, which play a structurally important role, were cut down after 1626. Confusing matters was the observation that the architectural style of Maruoka's tenshu was considered outdated by the 1620s.
In October 2019 the northeast exterior wall of the tenshu was damaged by a typhoon and were subsequently repaired by the Tanaka Shrine Co.
Current status
Maruoka Castle is one of just twelve castles in Japan which has managed to keep its original tenshu.
The former castle grounds are now incorporated in the Kasumigajo Park, which contain some remnants of the ramparts and moats as well as a small museum that displays some arms, armour, and household items related to its former lords. The area is famed for its approximately 400 cherry blossom trees.
An annual cherry blossom festival is held during the first three weeks of April during which the trees are lit up in the evenings by over 300 paper lanterns. at some stage these were replaced with roof tiles made from a local stone called shakudani. The reason for using stone tiles believed to have been because they provided superior thermal insulation during the winter.