JAPAN ALMANAC
Interpretive illustration of Hikone Castle, moats and Lake Biwa haze; not a site photograph.

Castle Atlas / No. 50

Hikone Castle

Hikone Castle preserves a National Treasure keep inside a layered Ii-clan castle landscape on the shoreward side of Lake Biwa.

Open in Google MapsOfficial visitor source

History

What historically stood here

The Japan Castle Foundation records 彦根城 as a 平山城 site in 彦根市, with the founding label 慶長9年（1604）. The listed builder or associated clan is 井伊直継・直孝; principal lords are 井伊氏.

The site’s history spans Edo period, Ii clan, modern preservation.

Today

What you are actually seeing today

You are seeing an original wooden keep, gates, turrets, stonework, moats and garden context. The keep is not a modern museum tower, even though museum functions exist nearby.

Current condition
Original surviving keep
Terrain
Hirayamajiro: hill-on-plain castle
Condition note
Keep field marks the keep as surviving (現存). Classified 2026-09-24 from the structured fields at https://cmeg.jp/w/castles/6169.

Architecture And Defense

How to read the place

  • original National Treasure keep
  • moats
  • stone walls
  • Genkyuen garden context

Cultural-property notes in the Foundation row: 国指定特別史跡, 国指定名勝, 国宝1件（天守）, 重要文化財5件.

National Treasure context: listed in Foundation cultural-property field.

Visit

Present-day visitor information

Public visitor site; check Hikone official/city sources before relying on hours, closures or event access.

Address or access location
滋賀県彦根市金亀町
Coordinates
35.276458, 136.251750
Nearest useful station
Hikone Station
Estimated visit duration
2-3 hours
Opening hours
Check the official visitor source.
Admission
Check the official visitor source.

Seasonal planning note

  • Lake Biwa weather and castle-garden seasons can affect pacing.

Nearby

Castles close enough to compare

No. 156

Kamaha Castle

Shiga / Reconstructed gates, turrets or buildings

Sources

Source and correction context

Identity, list membership, Foundation list number, municipality, basic classification and cultural-property notes are source-verified. Site-level visitor details require additional review unless this record is publishable. Foundation numbers are official list identifiers, not rankings. Coordinates use the Foundation-linked position-data KML and should be treated as visitor-planning coordinates rather than archaeological survey points.

Sources

  1. Japan's Top 100 and Continued Top 100 Castle Position Data, Japan Castle Foundation / Nippon Castle. Accessed 2026-09-04. Used for the 200 castle addresses and coordinates exposed through the public map linked from the Japan Castle Foundation castle-search page.
  2. Japan's Top 100 Castles, Japan Castle Foundation. Accessed 2026-09-04. Used for the official identity, list number, list membership, location municipality, castle type, founding label, builders, principal lords, cultural-property notes, and keep-status notes for the original 100-castle selection.
  3. Discover Japan's Twelve Original Castles, Japan National Tourism Organization. Accessed 2026-09-04. Used as visitor-facing context for the surviving original-keep distinction, while individual list identity remains sourced to the Japan Castle Foundation.
  4. 100 Fine Castles of Japan and Continued 100 Fine Castles of Japan, Wikipedia contributors. Accessed 2026-09-04. Used only as a secondary cross-check for common English castle names; Japan Castle Foundation records remain the corpus source of truth.
  5. Nippon Shiro Meguri castle records: keep structure, remains and rebuilt structures, Nippon Shiro Meguri (cmeg.jp). Accessed 2026-09-24. Structured fields for each of the 200 castles, used to classify what stands at each site today. The linked record for each castle is its coordinate source.