The last of Japan's feudal-era castles, Matsumae-jō was also the only one to be built on the island of Hokkaidō. Built in 1854 and named Fukuyama-jō by the Matsumae Clan, the castle was established following direct orders from the Tokugawa Shogunate to defend the strait between Hokkaidō and northern Honshū. Matsumae-jō was largely dismantled following the Boshin War in the early Meiji era, but did manage to retain its central keep and main gate. The current donjon is a 1961 ferro-concrete replica, however, built after the original burnt down in a 1948 fire.