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Fukui is the capital city of Fukui Prefecture, Japan, on the plain of the Kuzuryū River by the Sea of Japan, nicknamed the Phoenix City for rising again after war and earthquake. Its top sights are the Ichijōdani Asakura Family Historic Ruins, Yōkōkan Garden, Fukui Castle and the cherry trees along the Asuwa River.
The Asakura clan ruled Echizen from the Ichijōdani valley, a town of over 10,000 people at its height, until Oda Nobunaga destroyed it in 1573, and Shibata Katsuie then built Kitanoshō Castle here in 1575. In the Edo period Fukui was the castle town of Fukui Domain under the Matsudaira, and the modern city was founded on 1 April 1889.
Fukui covers 536.41 km² and had about 255,000 people in 2024. Bombing in 1945 destroyed 84.8% of the city and an earthquake struck in 1948, and the city is also known as the home of sauce katsudon, created by the restaurant Yoroppaken.
Ichijōdani Asakura Family Historic Ruins are the valley stronghold and castle town of the Asakura clan in Fukui, Japan, who ruled Echizen until Oda Nobunaga razed it in 1573. The 278-hectare Special Historic Site keeps the Asakura residence ruins and four gardens of Special Scenic Beauty.
Fukui Castle was the seat of the Echizen Matsudaira lords of Fukui Domain in Fukui, Japan, built from 1601 on the site of Shibata Katsuie's Kitanoshō Castle. Stone walls and the moat of its main enclosure survive, and the Fukui Prefectural Government offices now stand inside.
Kitanosho Castle was the castle Shibata Katsuie built in 1575 in what is now Fukui, Japan, with a nine-storey keep said to be the largest of its day. It burned in 1583 when Katsuie and his wife Oichi died after defeat at Shizugatake, and Shibata Shrine now shows its excavated walls.
Yōkōkan Garden is the former villa garden of the Matsudaira lords of Fukui Domain in central Fukui, Japan, finished at its present scale in 1699 around a strolling pond. Long called Osensui, it is a Place of Scenic Beauty and ranked third in a US garden journal's list from 2008 to 2010.
Fukui Shrine is a shrine in Fukui, Japan, founded in 1943 for Matsudaira Shungaku, the reforming 16th lord of Fukui Domain, and the last shrine given the rank of special government shrine. Burned in the 1945 air raid, it was rebuilt in 1957 in bare concrete with flat roofs.
Asuwa Shrine is an ancient shrine in the Asuwa district of Fukui, Japan, said to have been founded by Emperor Keitai, who is enshrined here, while he lived in Echizen as a prince. Listed in the Engishiki, it was revered by the Asakura and by the Matsudaira lords of Fukui Domain.
Fujishima Shrine is a shrine on Asuwayama in Fukui, Japan, dedicated to Nitta Yoshisada, who died in battle nearby in 1338, and one of the fifteen shrines of the Kenmu Restoration. It keeps a silver-inlaid iron helmet said to be his, dug up by a farmer in the 17th century.
Daian-ji is a Rinzai Zen temple in Fukui, Japan, founded in 1658 by Matsudaira Mitsumichi as the family temple of the Echizen Matsudaira lords. Its buildings escaped the war and the 1948 earthquake, and five of them, including the main hall of 1659, became Important Cultural Properties in 2008.
Asuwa River flows through central Fukui, Japan, its embankment lined with a row of cherry trees called the finest in Japan and listed among the country's 100 best cherry spots. It once carried boats from the Asakura's Ichijōdani to the port of Mikuni, and later green Shakudani stone.
Asuwayama Park tops a 116 m hill in Fukui, Japan, famed for cherry blossoms and for hydrangeas, the city flower. It has a small zoo, a statue of Emperor Keitai and old quarries of green Shakudani stone, and Hideyoshi is said to have camped here in 1583 to attack Kitanoshō Castle.
Echizen Suisen no Sato Park is a narcissus park on the Echizen Coast in Fukui, Japan, at the birthplace of Echizen narcissus in the largest wild narcissus colony in Japan. Its dome was the first in the country to bloom narcissus all year, and its rest area looks over the Sea of Japan.
Fukui Fine Arts Museum is the prefectural art museum in Fukui, Japan, opened in 1977 in a building by Satō Takeo. It is strong in artists linked to Okakura Tenshin, whose father was a Fukui samurai, with works by Hishida Shunsō and Yokoyama Taikan, and in local painter Iwasa Matabei.
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