Maruoka Castle

Maruoka Castle (丸岡城, Maruoka-jō) 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 Kasumi-ga-jō (霞ヶ城, Mist Castle) 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.