Asakura Yoshikage, the fifth and last Asakura lord, made Ichijodani a celebrated cultural refuge, patronizing Noh, renga, and painting until it was called 'the little Kyoto of Echizen.' But in the eighth month of 1573, with his retainers' morale collapsing before Nobunaga's invasion, he was crushed at Tonezaka. Just after Ichijodani burned, he was betrayed by his cousin Asakura Kageakira and took his own life on the 20th, aged 41 — and the Asakura clan ended.

In 1573 Oda Nobunaga invaded Echizen with 30,000 men and annihilated the Asakura at Tonezaka. Entering Ichijodani on the 18th, he burned its mansions, shrines, temples, and townhouses for three days and nights. This thorough destruction reduced a century-old castle town to ashes — yet paradoxically preserved its remains intact underground, making it an unrivaled record of a Sengoku castle town today.