Often referred to as Kasumiga-jō (霞ヶ城) in reference to a legendary mist said to descend and protect it whenever an enemy attempted to lay siege, Maruoka Castle is one of Japan's twelve original feudal castles. Completed in 1576 under Shibata Katsutoyo, it is often claimed as having the oldest standing wooden donjon in the country (though Inuyama is in fact older). In actuality, the 1948 earthquake which leveled nearby Fukui also brought Maruoka-jō tumbling to the ground, and the current structure is a 1955 reconstruction using 80% of the original materials. Both the exterior and interior of the castle do remain fully wooden (rather than ferro-concrete), thus making the reconstruction basically authentic. Listed as an Important Cultural Property, it remains rather off-the-beaten-path and overlooked by most guidebooks outside Japan.