Hikone Castle in Shiga Prefecture is one of the five castle towers designated as national treasures in Japan.

Hikone Castle was built at the beginning of the 17^th century for the Ii family, one of the four faithful families greatly contributed to Tokugawa Ieyasu to establish the Tokugawa shogunate based in Edo.  At the time of the castle construction, neighboring fifteen daimyos were ordered by Tokugawa shogun to join the work.  The work was a kind of national project, the so-called Tenka Bushin, the same as the construction work of Edo Castle, shogun’s base.  Construction materials such as stone and lumber were obtained from abandoned castles in the vicinity like Otsu Castle and Sawayama Castle.  They were dismantled to build Hikone Castle.  Hikone Castle consequently became the one and only castle in the province, serving as a herald of the later shogunate’s law of the One Castle per Province.  As Hikone area was

strategic crossroads for east-west routes, crucial battles between big powers took place frequently.  Hence, the Tokugawa shogunate put importance on the castle as an impregnable defense facility against the powerful western daimyos.  The second photo shows the entrance of the castle tower.  The entrance was designed locating at the very upper part of the stone foundation to connect with a wooden bridge.  The bridge could be destroyed just in case to repel enemy soldiers.  

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