Ono · JP

Echizen Ono Castle

Perched on the 249-metre shoulder of Kameyama above the Ono basin in Fukui's highlands, Echizen Ono Castle (越前大野城) is a hilltop fortress that earns the nickname "Castle in the Sky." When a morning sea of cloud rolls through the surrounding valley, the town below vanishes and the keep seems to float above the mist — one of Japan's most photographed ephemeral landscapes. The current tower is a faithful 1968 reconstruction of the late-16th-century original, and its museum floors and the grounds around it trace four centuries of castle and castle-town history. The castle was raised from around 1576 by Kanamori Nagachika, an elite commander among Oda Nobunaga's celebrated "Red Cloak" retainers, who spent some four years completing its fortifications. Its rough natural-stone ramparts, built in the nozura-zumi random-rubble style, are now a prefectural cultural property, and the site is listed among the Continued Top 100 Castles of Japan. Below, Kanamori laid out Ono's streets in a grid pattern borrowed from Kyoto, giving the town its enduring reputation as the "Little Kyoto of Hokuriku."