Hikone Castle Town in-depth article

2022/12/28

This in-depth article about the Hikone Castle Town presents a good introduction to the parts most often missed by travelers who just head straight to the main keep. There's nothing wrong with that. It's a fantastic site, but if you have some extra time in Hikone, why not look into some of these other features too. Of particular interest is the ashigaru neighborhoods and 20 former samurai homes now cataloged on this site. Check the link below for details!

https://jcastle.info/view/Hikone_Castle_Town

Two updates in two days! It's like Christmas for Jcastle fans. Actually I'm cleaning up a lot of updates from the year that have slipped by and trying to finish off some projects that were in progress before starting the new year. Unlike back home, Japan likes to do a deep house cleaning at the end of the year instead of Spring Cleaning, so consider this as one step in the year end Jcastle cleanup. I probably won't finish my to-do list, but I'll make a good dent in it. As always, if you follow on Facebook (links in the footer) you'll get more real time updates of my castle travels and albums. More details of history maps and other explanations will be found in these pages instead of social media so you can always check both too!

Hikone Castle / 彦根城

With the reconstructed lord's palace (castle museum), Hikone Castle is one of the most complete castles in Japan for you to visit and get a feeling for an Edo Period castle. Take your time to go into the gates and yagura that are open and take some time to walk around the outside of the moats. You'll get fantastic views of the castle and all the great stone walls to better understand the scale of the castle too. One of the most impressive features of Hikone Castle is the climbing stone walls (Nobori Ishigaki). Refer to the album below for more information.

Outside the castle grounds, the Hikone Castle Town is full of remnants of the deep history of Hikone. Please be sure to also review the more in-depth article on Hikone Castle Town for more insights than what the albums below may show.

Nearby Sawayama Castle also offers great views of Hikone Castle. You can use the online mapping functions on this panorama photo taken from Sawayama Castle to zoom in and out for more detail.

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