Kitanosho Castle

Kitanosho Castle (北圧城) was a hirashiro (castle located on a hill). Its remains are located in current-day Fukui, Fukui Prefecture, Japan. As the castle lasted merely eight years, few records survive about it. It is known, though that it was built by Shibata Katsuie in 1575. Also, it appears that the tenshu (keep) was nine stories high, making it the largest of the time.

The castle was destroyed in 1583, when Katsuie and his wife, Oichi, perished in a fire that Katsuie had started after he had lost the Battle of Shizugatake and retreated here. A few stone foundations of the castle were uncovered in archaeological digs and are now open to the public.