Maruoka Castle
丸岡城
Hokuriku's only original castle keep: a small tower under 120 tonnes of stone roof tiles, on a hill ringed with cherry trees
About Maruoka Castle
Maruoka's keep has two tiers outside and three floors inside, and it is the only one of Japan's twelve original keeps with a stone roof. The 1948 Fukui earthquake brought it down, stone base and all; by 1955 it had been put back together with more than 70 percent of its old pillars and beams. Until about November 2027, though, it is a building site: seismic and roof work has the keep wrapped in scaffolding, and you can go inside only on the days Sakai City's monthly schedule allows.
Essential Tips
Check Sakai City's repair schedule in the week you go: dates can shift with the work, and bad weather can close the keep at short notice
The Awara-Onsen bus is the quick way in from the Shinkansen, but at weekends only six run, arriving between 10:03 AM and 2:43 PM, and the last one back leaves the castle at 4:54 PM (5:00 PM on weekdays)
Keep both hands free for the stairs: leave bags in the coin lockers at the ticket office or at Machiyori
There are no toilets in the keep; the nearest are at Machiyori, the tourist center at the foot of the hill
Every ticket sold during the repair comes with a free special goshuin printed with drawings from the keep's 3D survey; in 2026 the ticket office also sells a 450th-anniversary goshuin for ¥300
In rain or snow the stone steps and slopes up the hill get slippery, so wear shoes with grip
Drones are banned over the castle and Kasumigajo Park
For lunch, the Maruoka branch of Yoroppaken, the Fukui restaurant whose founder introduced sauce katsudon in 1913, is 900 m (12 minutes on foot) southwest of the castle
Don't Miss
The Stone-Tile Roof
The keep's roofs are tiled in stone rather than clay, but they began as wooden shingles, and the change to stone made the roof five to six times heavier. The first stone tiles were Shakudani stone, quarried at the foot of Mount Asuwa in Fukui City. Most were replaced with more durable Takigahara stone from Komatsu in the 20th-century repairs, and about a fifth of the roof is still Shakudani. The roof is the part being repaired from late September 2026, so it stays behind scaffolding and sheeting until 2027.
The 65 and 67-Degree Stairs
Outside, the keep shows two tiers; inside there are three floors, and no pillar runs up from the first floor into the two above. Six thick posts in the middle of the first floor carry everything overhead, and two of them date from when the keep was built. The stairs climb at 65 degrees to the second floor and 67 to the third, so use both hands and take your time on the way down.
Ippitsu Keijo Letter Museum
From camp, Honda Shigetsugu, a retainer of Tokugawa Ieyasu, sent his wife a letter still cited in Japan as a model of brevity: 'A brief note: beware of fire, do not make O-sen cry, fatten the horses.' O-sen was his son, who grew up to be Honda Narishige, first lord of Maruoka. The town has run a national competition for very short letters since 1993, and this museum, a seven-minute walk from the keep, shows the winners, some of them pouring down a screen about 10 metres wide like a waterfall. The castle ticket covers it; on its own it costs ¥200.
Cherry Blossoms at Kasumigajo Park
About 400 Somei-yoshino cherry trees fill the park around the castle hill. They bloom between late March and mid-April, and during the Maruoka Castle Cherry Blossom Festival they are lit after dark. The castle's other name, Kasumigajo (Castle of Mist), goes back to a legend, but it suits the pale pink haze around the hill in April. In spring 2027 the keep will still be under scaffolding, so that year the trees are the show.
The Life-Size Keep on the Scaffolding
Before the repair began, the keep was measured inside and out with laser scanners, and drones photographed the roof. The result is printed life-size on the sheeting over the east and west sides of the scaffolding: the outside of the keep on the left, a cut-away of the inside on the right. The real keep stays hidden until the work is finished, so for now this is the only full view of it you will get.
What to Do Here
Keep, Stone Shachi and Letter Museum
Buy your ticket at the office on the hill and go inside as far as the repair allows. On the way down, call in at Machiyori, the tourist center at the foot of the hill, to see the stone shachi: the keep's roof ornaments were switched to stone during the war, when copper was hard to get, and went back to copper-clad wood after the earthquake. Then walk on to the Ippitsu Keijo letter museum, which the same ticket covers.
Tips:
- The stone base is nozura-zumi: about 6.2 metres of unshaped stones stacked with wide gaps, which let rainwater drain out
- Once the fencing around the keep comes down, look at the south side of the base for stones thought to come from old Buddhist memorial towers
- Machiyori has a café, a shop with castle souvenirs and a luggage counter
Maruoka by Bus between Awara Onsen and Eiheiji
Keifuku bus routes 86 and 87 run from Awara-Onsen Station on the Hokuriku Shinkansen to the Maruoka-jo stop in 18 to 19 minutes, and the route 86 buses carry on to Eiheiji, the head temple of Soto Zen, 41 minutes further. That makes the castle an easy stop between a night at Awara Onsen and an afternoon at Eiheiji, without going back through Fukui.
Tips:
- At weekends the 9:45 AM from Awara-Onsen reaches the castle at 10:03, and the 11:43 goes on to Eiheiji, arriving at 12:24 (2026 timetable)
- Maruoka-jo to Eiheiji costs ¥800; Keifuku buses take transport IC cards
- Awara-Onsen is one stop north of Fukui on the Hokuriku Shinkansen
Cherry Blossom Evening
In festival weeks the park is worth a second visit in the evening, when the trees are lit, and once the scaffolding is gone the keep above the blossoms makes the classic Maruoka photograph. The park is free; only the keep needs a ticket, and it closes at 5 PM.
Tips:
- Bloom runs from late March to mid-April; follow a Fukui forecast, not Tokyo's
- The free car parks at the castle and the letter museum close at 8 PM
- Without a car, the 6:50 PM bus to Fukui Station is the last way back; the Awara-Onsen buses finish before the lights come on
Plan Your Visit
Opening Hours
castle
8:30 AM – 5:00 PM (last entry 4:30 PM), open every day
repairs
Seismic and roof repair from March 2026 to about November 2027. Keep entry follows Sakai City's schedule: open September 19 to November 8, 2026, with part of the first floor closed and no outside views from the upper floors (the third floor is also shut October 26-30); closed November 9-30, 2026. Both periods are planned, and the city posts the schedule one to two months at a time.
works
Construction runs on weekdays, 8 AM – 5 PM; there is no work at weekends or on public holidays.
Best Time to Visit
Late March to mid-April, when the cherry trees around the hill bloom and the Maruoka Castle Cherry Blossom Festival lights them at night. Until the repair ends in late 2027, what matters more is Sakai City's schedule: pick a day the keep is open, and go at a weekend, when there is no construction work.
Avoid:
Sunny weekends at peak cherry blossom in early April
Nearby
Ippitsu Keijo Letter Museum
Winning letters from the national short-letter competition, and a corner where you can write your own; open 9 AM to 5 PM and included in the castle ticket.
500 m
Machiyori Market (Maruoka Castle Tourist Center)
Tourist center at the foot of the hill with the wartime stone shachi on show, toilets, lockers and wheelchair loans; open 8:30 AM to 5 PM.
300 m
Shirokoya Maruco
Castle-themed cafe on the west side of the hill, with coffee ground to order and about 600 books on castles to browse.
200 m
Gallery
The Shakudani stone tiles turn bluer when the roof is wet
Come down facing the steps, as you would on a ladder
Kasumigajo Park has been one of Japan's Top 100 Cherry Blossom Spots since 1990
The monument behind the prize; some winning letters are posted beside the steps up to the Honmaru
History
founding
Shibata Katsutoyo, nephew of Oda Nobunaga's general Shibata Katsuie, built the castle in 1576 to hold the area against the Ikko-ikki, the militant Buddhist leagues. In 1613 Honda Narishige became lord, and in 1624 Maruoka became a domain of its own under him; the Arima clan ruled from 1695 until the domain was abolished in 1871.
significance
The keep's old-fashioned look, a small lookout set on a large hip-and-gable roof, long had it billed as the oldest surviving keep in Japan, a title argued over with Inuyama. A research committee appointed by Sakai City dated its timbers between 2015 and 2018 by tree rings, radiocarbon and oxygen isotopes, and in 2019 placed the present keep in the Kan'ei era (1624–1644), when Honda Narishige was lord. It is an Important Cultural Property rather than a National Treasure, and the earthquake had nothing to do with that: the 1950 heritage law turned every prewar National Treasure into an Important Cultural Property, and only some were named National Treasures again. Sakai City now runs a project to win that status back.
reconstruction
In the Meiji era the castle's land and buildings were sold off and everything that could be reused elsewhere was taken away, leaving the keep alone on the hill. Local volunteers pooled their own money to buy it back; it served as a temple for more than 20 years, and in 1901 it was given to the town as a public hall. It became a National Treasure in 1934 and was taken apart and repaired in 1940–42, only six years before the magnitude 7.1 Fukui earthquake of June 1948, centred on Maruoka, brought down the keep and its stone base together. With the drawings and photographs from that prewar repair, and donations from across Japan, the keep was reassembled between 1951 and 1955 with more than 70 percent of its pillars and beams reused; it is the only one of the twelve to have come back from a complete collapse.
name Origin
Kasumigajo, the castle's other name, means Castle of Mist. It comes from a legend that a great serpent appeared during a battle and breathed out a mist that hid the castle from its attackers.
Getting There
Keifuku Bus from Awara-Onsen Station
Station: Awara-Onsen Station (Hokuriku Shinkansen), bus stop 1
Exit: Get off at Maruoka-jo
Walk: 5 minutes on foot to the keep, partly uphill
Routes 86 and 87, 18-19 minutes: nine buses a day on weekdays and six at weekends and holidays (2026 timetable). The route 86 buses continue to Eiheiji.
Keifuku Bus from Fukui Station
Station: Fukui Station west exit, stop 1 (routes 36, 39) or stop 2 (routes 31, 32)
Exit: Get off at Maruoka-jo
Walk: 5 minutes on foot to the keep, partly uphill
Routes 36 and 39 run hourly each, so there is a bus about every 30 minutes, and the ride takes 50-55 minutes. The last bus back leaves the castle at 6:50 PM (2026 timetable).
Hapi-Line Fukui to Maruoka Station, then Taxi
Station: Maruoka Station (Hapi-Line Fukui)
Exit: Taxi from the station
Walk: About 15 minutes by taxi for the 4 km to the castle
12 minutes by train from Fukui. Keifuku bus 48 runs from the station to the castle in 17 minutes, but only at 11:37 AM, 3:47 PM and 5:37 PM, and not on Sundays or holidays.
By Car
Station: Maruoka IC (Hokuriku Expressway), an ETC-only toll gate
Exit: About 10 minutes from the interchange
Walk: A few minutes from the castle car park, longer from the letter museum's
40 spaces at the castle and 140 at the letter museum's north car park, open 6:30 AM to 8 PM. The easiest way to combine Maruoka with Tojinbo and Eiheiji in a day.
Location
1-59 Kasumi-cho, Maruoka-cho, Sakai, Fukui 910-0231
Nearest: Maruoka-jo bus stop, Keifuku Bus (5-minute walk to the keep; the nearest railway station, Maruoka on the Hapi-Line, is 4 km away)
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