Hikone

Hikone Castle is a hirayamajiro and was built on the site of Ishida Mitsunari’s Sawayama Castle in present day Shiga prefecture (in the former Omi province). The castle's main tower was built on top of a hill, thus being easier to defend, and surrounded with defensive walls, moats and yagura towers.

After Mitsunari’s defeat by Tokugawa Ieyasu at the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, Ieyasu’s forces advanced on Sawayama. The castle was being defended by Mitsunari’s brother, Ishida Masazumi. The castle was laid to siege by Ii Naomasa leading a force of 15,000. After only a day, the castle defenders struck a deal with the Ii. Masazumi was to commit suicide and the rest of the defenders would go free after handing the castle over to Naomasa. Before this could be put into effect, the castle tenshu was set aflame and all of Ishida’s relatives committed seppuku in the ensuing chaos.

In an era where fief transfers were the rule, the Ii were the exception. They retained control of Hikone until the Meiji Restoration. Ii Naosuke played an important part in the opening of Japan during the 1850’s. He paid for this with his life, being assassinated by anti-Shogunate rebels outside the Sakurada-mon of Edo castle in 1860. Only a request from the Emperor Meiji spared the structure from the wholesale castle destruction of the times. Today, the inner portion of the castle remains largely intact (although the outer two lines of castle defenses were dismantled). The original tenshu, moat, ishigaki, gateways, and three turrets still stand.