Thank you for watching
Our live stream of 22 April 2026, “Walking Ichijodani with our celebrated guide: the Plan-View Reconstruction Area”, has now come to a close. Our warm thanks to everyone who joined us on the day and to all those who left such kind comments.
The recording is now available. If you missed the broadcast, or would simply like to watch it again, you can enjoy it at any time in the video below.
Walking the Sengoku castle town: the Plan-View Reconstruction Area at the Ichijodani Asakura Family Historic Ruins
The Ichijodani Asakura Family Historic Ruins lie in Fukui City, Fukui Prefecture. They are the remains of the castle town of the Asakura family, who flourished here through five generations and roughly a century during the Sengoku period.
In 1573 the family was destroyed by Oda Nobunaga and the castle town burnt to the ground — yet beneath that layer of scorched earth the Sengoku streets survived intact, preserved, in effect, like a time capsule. The Plan-View Reconstruction Area is where the post holes of samurai residences and townhouses, the stone walls, the roads and the wells have been marked out at ground level on the basis of the excavations. It is a rare place indeed: the ground plan of a Sengoku castle town, laid out for you to walk through.
In this stream, Kiyoshi Kishida, chairman of Creative ASUWA, takes us round the Plan-View Reconstruction Area at a leisurely pace, on location. The Reconstructed Townscape, rebuilt in three dimensions, is famous throughout Japan — but it is here, in the Plan-View Reconstruction Area, that the essence of the site as an archaeological monument really lies. The stone walls of the samurai residences, the wells that survive in each plot, the narrow strip-shaped townhouse plots where the craftsmen worked, and the excavated finds that testify to international trade — he takes us through each of these remains in turn, as we walk the ground.
What the stream covered (around 60 minutes)
- Opening — Ichijodani and the Asakura family; an overview of the Plan-View Reconstruction Area
- The samurai residence area — rough-piled stone walls, stone-lined wells, and reading the layout of a residence from its foundation stones
- The townhouse area — Sengoku-period roads and drainage ditches, the strip-shaped plots where craftsmen lived, and the international trade revealed by the finds
- Highlights — the remains our chairman is particularly fond of, behind-the-scenes tales from the excavations, and the landscape through the seasons
- About Creative ASUWA — our work towards World Heritage inscription, regional development, and projects to come
- Closing — a message to everyone watching
Stream details
| Date | Sunday 22 April 2026, from 13:30 (around 60 minutes) |
| Location | the Plan-View Reconstruction Area, Ichijodani Asakura Family Historic Ruins (Kidonouchi-cho, Fukui City, Fukui Prefecture) |
| Guide | Kiyoshi Kishida (chairman of Creative ASUWA) |
| Platform | YouTube Live |
| Cost | free (open to everyone) |
You may enjoy this if…
- you have been to the Ichijodani Asakura Family Historic Ruins but never really taken your time over the Plan-View Reconstruction Area
- you are interested in life in a Sengoku-period castle town
- you live outside Fukui Prefecture and would like to experience Ichijodani from afar
- you would like to know more about the work of Creative ASUWA, or already support us
About Creative ASUWA
Creative ASUWA is an organisation dedicated to sharing the appeal of Fukui’s historical and cultural resources — the Ichijodani Asakura Family Historic Ruins above all — and to regional development and passing that heritage on to the next generation. Alongside our work towards World Heritage inscription, we convey the value of Ichijodani in many other ways, including the Asakura Kyogaku project.
Official website: https://c-asuwa.or.jp/
Do please enjoy the recording, and let the Sengoku winds of the Ichijodani castle town blow through. We hope you will continue to follow the work of Creative ASUWA.
Creative ASUWA