[1] During the Edo period, it was the headquarters of a branch of the Matsudaira clan, who were hereditary daimyō of Fukui domain under the Tokugawa shogunate.

In 1573, after the Siege of Ichijōdani Castle, Oda Nobunaga placed his trusted general Shibata Katsuie in charge of Echizen Province.

As the castle lasted merely eight years, few records survive about it; however, it is known that the extensive earthen ramparts were faced with stone, and that there was a network of water moats.

[5] Following the Battle of Sekigahara, the victorious Tokugawa Ieyasu awarded all of Echizen Province to his second son, Yūki Hideyasu.

Surrounded by four separate water moats, the layout of the castle’s Honmaru and Ni-no-maru precincts are said to have been designed by Ieyasu himself, and took six years to complete.