25/12/2025
Hikone castle was chosen by Tokugawa Ieyasu as a key stronghold controlling the Tokaido route.
Though relatively small, the castle is carefully designed — even the steep, uneven steps leading up to it reveal how deliberately it was built to be difficult to attack.
Hikone is also inseparable from the life of Ii Naosuke井伊直弼, the man who helped end Japan’s long period of isolation.
For this decision, he was long remembered by many as a villain.
Yet knowing the cost, he continued his role to the very end.
One of his poems speaks of standing firm, even while being battered by the rough waves of Lake Biwa — continuing on the path he believed in.
Walking through Hikone Castle, I was reminded how seriously he lived, and how history feels different when you encounter it not as a story of good or evil, but as the resolve of a real human life.
