Echizen Ōno Castle (‘castle in the sky’)

photo by Keisuke MAEDA · CC BY-SA 4.0

photo by くろふね · CC BY-SA 4.0

On misty dawns from October to April, the castle seems to hang above a sea of clouds.

The castle stands on top of Kameyama, an isolated hill in the Ōno plain: when the cold morning air traps the fog in the basin below, the fortress is the only thing left visible above a sea of clouds, hence the nickname ‘castle in the sky’. The spot to see it from is at the foot of Mount Inuyama, one kilometre to the west, reachable only on foot and only before nine in the morning.

Built between 1576 and 1580 by Kanamori Nagachika, who received the 30,000 koku of Ōno province as a reward, it burned down in 1775 and remained a stone base for almost two centuries. The current tenshu, in reinforced concrete over four storeys, was rebuilt in 1968 from historical drawings and on the model of castles of the same period, with no claim to complete historical accuracy: today it houses a museum and an observation deck.

ℹ️ Open 9:00–17:00 (April–September) and 9:00–16:00 (October–November); closed from 1 December to 19 March for the winter season. Adult ticket 400 yen (groups of 30+: 200 yen; annual pass 1,000 yen), free up to junior high. The sea of clouds can be seen from outside, free of charge, from dawn until about 9:00: the castle itself keeps the hours above.

🚉 Echizen-Ono · 23 min walk

Sources: onocastle.net · onocastle.net · ja.wikipedia.org

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