Hikone Castle: A National-Treasure Keep Without the Crowds

A surviving castle keep with national-treasure status is a rarity in Japan, and Hikone has one. Its roof brings together kirizuma, irimoya and kara-hafu gables, and the mix gives a compact tower a well-proportioned look. The castle is described as a hirayama-jiro on a low hill, with the town of Hikone and Lake Biwa in view from its grounds. A garden, a stable and streets of old shopfronts gather around the castle, close enough to visit together on foot.

The Keep: Gables, Gun Ports and Black-Lacquer Windows

Hikone shares its national-treasure designation with Himeji, Matsumoto, Inuyama and Matsue castles. On the roof, plain kirizuma, hip-and-gable irimoya and curved kara-hafu gables meet on a tower small enough to take in at a glance. The keep, the turrets listed as Important Cultural Properties, the Genkyu-en garden of the lower residence and the inner and middle moats all keep the appearance of their own period.

The keep was built to be defended, and the signs reward a slow look. Gun ports are cut so that they cannot be picked out from outside, with rectangular arrow slits beside them, both made for battle rather than show. Inside the gables are small rooms, the hafu-no-ma or hidden rooms, and gun ports pierce their inner walls too, so a defender could fire from within the roof.

On the upper floors, kato-mado windows finished in black lacquer sit beside plainer windows that let in light, and the pairing adds ornament to a building otherwise shaped by war. Outside the keep, the site of the Tsukimi Turret on the south-east side of the castle is said to be an especially good spot for viewing and photographing the town and the lake.

Up the Castle Hill: Turrets and the Long Stable

The usual course through the grounds is described as starting from Omotemon Bridge and passing Sawaguchi Tamon Turret, Tenbin Turret, the Umaya and Taikomon Turret in turn before the keep, about sixty minutes in all. At Tenbin Turret the central bridge is said to have been made removable for emergencies, and the stone walls to its left and right were stacked by different methods.

Taikomon Turret, the last gate before the keep, is unusually built: its east side has no wall, and a railing runs between the posts, so that face becomes a corridor. The Umaya, the stable, stands outside the front gate, a long narrow building parted from the road by the inner moat, where horses for the domain lord and others were kept.

It is a national Important Cultural Property with no counterpart among the large stables surviving at early-modern castles nationwide. The building is L-shaped, with a small tatami room at the east end adjoining the Sawaguchi turret gate, a gate near the west end, and horse stands and tethering areas between. It is said to have held more than ten of the lord's horses, with room for twenty-one, and visitors can walk through at will.

Genkyu-en, Rakurakuen and the Garden Boat

Genkyu-en, the lord's garden north-east of the castle, is a strolling garden built around a wide pond with islands and nine bridges over its inlets. It is said to have been laid out by Ii Naooki, the fourth lord of the domain, after the Eight Views of Omi, scenes chosen around Lake Biwa on a Chinese model. Pond, islands and bridges compose a different scene at each turn.

In the Edo period boats were floated on this pond for pleasure, and a revived pleasure boat in that style now floats on it for a limited period. From the water the garden is seen as those boating parties saw it: the pond, the bridges over islands and inlets, and the national-treasure keep beyond them.

Rakurakuen, the residence, has a garden of a different kind: a karesansui, a dry landscape made without water. From the house the view across an inner lake once took in Mount Ibuki, Mount Sawayama and Mount Isoyama. Genkyu-en is the garden for water, islands and bridges; Rakurakuen is the one to see for a dry landscape.

Museum, Umoregi-no-ya and the Old Town Streets

Hikone Castle Museum is a reconstruction of the administrative hall from which the Hikone domain was governed in the Edo period, so the building itself is on show. Inside are the things handed down in the Ii family: red armour and swords, tea utensils and Noh equipment, furnishings, old documents and works of art and craft.

At the centre of the museum stands an Edo-period Noh stage, on which Noh and kyogen are performed. The lord's private quarters have been restored, with his own rooms, tea rooms and garden. Umoregi-no-ya is the house where Ii Naosuke spent his youth; there he composed a waka poem, named the house and trained in literary and martial arts alike.

Yume Kyobashi Castle Road runs right beside Kyobashi, the bridge over the castle moat; its frontages of white plaster and black lattice are held to one machiya style, so the street reads as an Edo castle town. Japanese sweet shops, Western sweet shops and shops selling local products stand in a row along it. In the Kawaramachi and Serimachi district the roads bend gently instead of running straight, because the castle town was laid out over a filled-in riverbed.

Plum, Cherry and Spiny Water Plants Around the Moat

The seasons change what the moat has to show. In the plum grove in the castle grounds about four hundred red and white plum trees come into bloom, and in a children's park by the inner moat the Nikizaki cherry flowers twice, in spring from April to May and again in winter from November to January, so even a winter visit brings blossom.

In the moats grows the onibasu, a water plant with sharp thorns that lives wild in ponds. Its leaves are round, green and glossy on top and tinged reddish purple underneath, with countless thorns on both faces; the floating leaves average about one metre across and rarely reach three metres. It is an annual whose place shifts each year; a stretch thick with leaves may show nothing the next year.

The plant is said to have been moved into the inner and outer moats from an inner lake nearby as a defence against enemy soldiers crossing the water in battle, which makes a botanical curiosity part of the castle's story. In autumn the castle also admits visitors for a special night-time viewing.

Getting to Hikone Castle

How	Detail
From Kyoto Station	About 46 minutes to Hikone Station on the Special Rapid Service
From Osaka Station	About 80 minutes to Hikone Station on the Special Rapid Service
From JR Hikone Station to the castle	About 15 minutes on foot
Around the castle	Genkyu-en, Hikone Castle Museum, the moat boat and Umoregi-no-ya are all within walking distance of JR Hikone Station

New to rural buses and one-man trains? See how to ride them, step by step.

Hours and Fees

What	Fare or time	Note
Hikone Castle	8:30 to 17:00, entry until 16:30	No closing day
Hikone Castle including Genkyu-en, adult	1,000 yen
Hikone Castle including Genkyu-en, elementary and junior high school student	300 yen
Hikone Castle including Genkyu-en plus the museum, combined adult ticket	1,500 yen
Hikone Castle Museum, adult	700 yen
Genkyu-en alone, adult	400 yen
Hikone Castle Museum	8:30 to 17:00, entry until 16:30
Hikone Castle Museum, year-end closure	December 25 to 31
Umaya	8:30 to 17:00	No closing day
Umoregi-no-ya	9:00 to 17:00, entry until 16:30
Umoregi-no-ya, closed	Mondays (the following day when Monday is a holiday) and December 20 to the end of February
Umoregi-no-ya, admission	Adults 300 yen; high school and university students 200 yen; elementary and junior high school students 100 yen

Those who would rather have the castle hill and the gardens explained on the spot can look at guided tours and day trips around Hikone.

Anyone who would rather spread the keep, the gardens, the museum and the old streets over more than a day can look at places to stay in Hikone.