Echizen Ono Castle

Echizen Ono Castle was built by Nagachika Kanamori, one of Oda Nobunaga’s elite vassals, “Akamogorishu,” who was given two-thirds of the county of Ono by Nobunaga Oda, on a 249-meter-high mountain called Kameyama in the Ono Basin.

The construction of the castle took four years from 1576 (Tensho 4). At that time, it was a magnificent castle with a two-story, three-story main keep, a two-story, two-story small keep, tengu-shoin turrets, and the Ninomaru and Sanomaru towers, and the castle was protected by an outer moat and inner moat.

The stone walls that form the foundation of the castle were built using a method known as field masonry, in which natural stones are stacked on top of each other.

The Ono clan’s administrative office was once located here. However, it was destroyed by fire in the late Edo period.

Today, the castle tower, rebuilt in 1968, and the Tengu Shoin, as well as the stone walls built with fieldstone masonry, remind us of the past. The surrounding area is maintained as a historical park with a good view.

The current castle tower was rebuilt in 1968, and the relics of successive lords of the castle are on display inside the castle.

Echizen-Ono Castle offers a fantastic view where the entire Ono Basin is enveloped in a sea of clouds and only Echizen-Ono Castle appears to float, depending on the weather conditions from late fall to spring.

This view has earned Echizen-Ono Castle the nickname “Castle in the Sky,” and the castle has been selected as one of the 100 most famous castles in Japan. The castle has been selected as one of the 100 most famous castles in Japan, and is therefore visited by many people. Ono Castle was selected as one of the “100 Great Castles of Japan.

Ono has long flourished as an important transportation hub connecting the two countries of Echizen and Mino.

Echizen Ono Castle dates back to 1575, when Nagachika Kanamori, a vassal of Nobunaga Oda, was given a fief of 30,000 koku by Nobunaga Oda as a reward for his efforts in subduing the Asakura clan and the Echizen Uprisings.

Nagachika Kanamori became the lord of Ono Castle, and in 1576, the following year, he began building a castle on Kameyama (a small mountain in the Ono Basin) near Inuyama Castle. He took the name Yoanaka Sogen and established his family’s tea lineage.

The castle took four years to build and was completed in 1580. The castle tower was built on the top of Turtle Mountain.

Furthermore, a lattice-shaped castle town similar to Kyoto was constructed. This caused Ono to flourish as the “Little Kyoto of Hokuriku” and was the origin of the present urban area. For the next 430 years, Ono prospered as the center of the Oku-Echizen region.

The lord of the castle changed frequently, and the castle, once a complex of a two-story, three-story main keep connected to a two-story, two-story small keep and a tengu turret, was burned down in 1775, and although all but the main keep was rebuilt in 1795, the main keep was never reconstructed. The tower was destroyed after the Meiji Restoration.

Doi Toshitada was the seventh lord of Ono during the Edo period (1603-1867), and is known for his major reforms of the domain government, reforming the military system, building Western-style ships, pioneering the Ezo region, and establishing hospitals. In particular, he worked to promote Western studies and translated and published many Western books.

Echizen Ono Castle, rebuilt in the Showa period, is known as the “Castle in the Sky” along with Takeda Castle and Bicchu Matsuyama Castle. During certain weather conditions, from October to April, the castle (castle ruins) can be seen floating in a sea of clouds, a beautiful sight that appears only a few times a year.

Currently, stonewalls and moats remain on the top of the mountain, and some inner and outer moats remain at the foot of the mountain. As for structures, the unknown gate and the gate part of the Hatomon gate were moved and remain as the Koumyouji temple gate. The retirement residence of Toshitada VIII was also relocated and now remains as the shrine office for Yanaginoso Shrine.

Reconstructed Tenshukaku

The current castle tower on top of the mountain was built in 1968 and was restored with a donation from Sada Hagiwara, a former samurai family member. It was reconstructed with a reinforced concrete structure based on illustrations and the keep of other castles of the same period, but it is not an exact reconstruction, as the location of the small keep was built in place of the tengu turret.

The reconstructed keep is a four-story structure, with a museum (1st to 3rd floors) displaying materials related to successive lords of the castle, and an observatory (4th floor, the top floor). However, it is closed during the winter season from December to March of the following year.