DISCOVER FUKUI

The military chronicle "Taiheiki" records that Shiba Takatsune, a military commander of the Nanboku-chō period, built seven castles, and Koguro-maru Castle is counted among them (though theories vary).

According to Volume 20 of the Taiheiki, Takatsune used this castle as his base. Hosokawa Dewa-no-kami and Shikusa Hikotaro, commanders of Takatsune's forces who had set out from Kokoromaru Castle, unexpectedly encountered Nitta Yoshisada marching toward Fujishima Castle and engaged him in battle.They defeated Yoshisada at Tomyoji-nada. Yoshisada's body was taken to Ojoin Temple (present-day Shonenji Temple), while his head was sent to Kyoto. (Battle of Fujishima)

The castle site monument once stood on an embankment within rice fields 30 meters north of the current stone monument. Traces of a moat, then a lower-lying rice field, remained faintly visible, and a place name "Banba" (meaning "horse field") persisted, thought to be a remnant of the former parade ground. It was later relocated and renovated to its current position due to land redistribution under a prefectural farmland improvement project.

After the fall of Kurokuro Castle, some members of the Shiba clan remained in the area to farm, and this is said to be the origin of Kurokuro Town. Several households believed to be descendants of the clan still reside in Kurokuro Town today, all bearing the same family crest as the Shiba clan: "two crossed swords within a circle." A custom also persists where they "do not eat ozoni soup on New Year's Day" to remember and honor their ancestors' hardships. Nearby, at the Kuromaru-cho Community Center, a stone memorial tower (thirteen-tiered pagoda) was erected to enshrine the ancestral spirits of the many warriors who perished in battles fought here. Beneath the tower, rosaries donated by each household in Kuromaru-cho are enshrined. (Reference: History of Nishifujishima Village, History of Nishifujishima)

※ It is sometimes called "Kōri Kuromaru Castle" due to the place name "Kōri."

※The Taiheiki does not distinguish between Koguro-maru Castle and Daikuro-maru Castle in writing; it sometimes refers to both collectively as "Kuro-maru Castle."