Hikone castle

彦根城 hikone-jô

originally preserved castle / japanische Burg

Hikone City

After 20 years of construction, Hikone-jô was completed in 1623 on the site of Sawayama castle, which had been destroyed in 1601, and from then on served as the residence of the II family until the end of the feudal period. II Naosuke (1815-1860), who was feudal lord (daimyô) of Hakone at the end of the Edo period (1603-1868), advocated the open-door policy, signing the “Treaty of Friendship and Commerce” between Japan and the United States and decisively opening up and modernising Japan. In response to these measures, he was assassinated in 1860. The entire castle complex, located in the middle of the town of Hikone, is almost completely preserved to this day. Below the castle is the Rakuraku-en garden. The castle is located on an elongated hill that used to extend to a bay of Lake Biwa.