kansaishiga
Lake Biwa
Lake Biwa is the largest freshwater lake in Japan, filling much of Shiga Prefecture in the Kansai region, with its southern shore at Otsu only ten minutes by train from Kyoto.
- Prefecture
- Shiga
- Region
- Kansai
- Journeys
- The Custom Tour of Japan
overview
The great lake beside Kyoto, with castles, temples and merchant towns along its shores.
Lake Biwa covers some 670 square kilometres and is one of the oldest lakes in the world, about four million years old. It takes its name from its shape, likened to the biwa, the Japanese lute. For the capital at Kyoto it was the road to the east and the north, carrying rice, timber and pilgrims, and its shores became a country of castles, temples and prosperous merchant towns.
The region was called Omi, and its sights were famous long before modern travel. The Eight Views of Omi, scenes of the lake in rain, moonlight and evening, were painted by Hiroshige and many others. The warlord Oda Nobunaga built his castle at Azuchi on its shore, the Ii clan held Hikone for the Tokugawa shoguns, and the Omi merchants carried their goods across Japan from towns of canals and white-walled storehouses.
For a traveller, Shiga is the quiet side of Kyoto. Enryaku-ji on Mount Hiei, the mother temple of Japanese Buddhism, stands on the ridge between the city and the lake. Hikone keeps one of the few original castle keeps in Japan, and the Miho Museum sits in the hills of Shigaraki as a work of architecture worth the journey by itself. Most of it can be seen in day trips from Kyoto, and a night by the water slows the pace.
see and do
What to see in Lake Biwa
Hikone Castle
One of only five castles in Japan whose keep is designated a National Treasure, completed in 1622 for the Ii clan and never destroyed, standing on a hill above the lake with its moats, turrets and stone walls intact.
Genkyu-en
The strolling garden of the lords of Hikone below the castle, laid out in 1677 around a pond with islands and bridges, with the keep rising above the trees in the borrowed view.
Omi-Hachiman
A merchant town founded in 1585, its canal, the Hachiman-bori, lined with white-walled storehouses and stone steps to the water, and its old streets kept as a preservation district. A flat-bottomed boat, poled by a boatman, carries you along the canal through the reeds.
The Miho Museum
A museum designed by I. M. Pei and opened in 1997 in the forested hills of Shigaraki, approached through a curving tunnel and across a suspension bridge, with a collection of ancient art from Egypt, Persia, China and Japan.
Ukimido at Katata
A small temple hall of Mangetsu-ji built out on the water on stilts, joined to the shore by a short bridge, the scene of the wild geese descending at Katata, one of the Eight Views of Omi.
Enryaku-ji
The head temple of the Tendai school, founded on Mount Hiei in 788 by the monk Saicho, where many founders of later Buddhist schools trained. In its main hall, the Konpon Chudo, a lamp is said to have burned for some twelve centuries. It is part of the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto World Heritage Site.
Sakamoto
The town at the foot of Mount Hiei where the retired monks of Enryaku-ji lived, its lanes lined with temple walls of stacked stone, and with Hiyoshi Taisha, the guardian shrine of the mountain.
Chikubu-shima
A small wooded island in the north of the lake, reached by boat, holding Hogon-ji temple and Tsukubusuma Shrine, worshipped since early times as a sacred island.
Ishiyama-dera
A temple built on great outcrops of rock at the southern tip of the lake, where Murasaki Shikibu is said to have begun writing The Tale of Genji.
Shirahige Shrine
An ancient shrine on the western shore whose vermilion torii stands in the lake itself, with the water and the far hills framed between its pillars.
experiences
The best of Lake Biwa
Mount Hiei with a monk
A morning at Enryaku-ji with someone who has trained there, walking between the halls of the Todo and Saito precincts among the cedars and hearing how the mountain shaped Japanese Buddhism.
Omi beef on the shore
Omi beef, one of the three great wagyu of Japan, raised in Shiga for some four centuries, served as sukiyaki or grilled over charcoal, followed by a glass of Shiga sake.
The Miho Museum as architecture
A slow afternoon at the Miho Museum, from the walk through the tunnel to the galleries lit through their glass roofs, with a car waiting for the return to Kyoto.
The canal of Omi-Hachiman
A boat through the reeds of the old canal and the water villages around it, poled by a boatman, followed by the merchant houses of the old town.
plan your visit
Lake Biwa on a journey through Japan
- How long to stay
- Lake Biwa is most often seen in one or two days out from Kyoto; a night or two on the shore allows Hikone, Omi-Hachiman and the island of Chikubu-shima without returning to the city.
- Getting there
- Otsu is ten minutes from Kyoto by JR, and Hikone about fifty minutes by train or an hour by car. From Tokyo, the Shinkansen reaches Maibara, five minutes from Hikone, in about two and a quarter hours. Mount Hiei is about forty minutes by car from central Kyoto, and the Miho Museum about an hour.
journeys
Lake Biwa on a private journey
We shape a journey to Lake Biwa as a Custom Tour of Japan: created around your party alone, on your dates, with a Tour Director beside you.
questions
Lake Biwa: questions answered
Where is Lake Biwa?
Lake Biwa is in Shiga Prefecture, in the Kansai region, just east of Kyoto. Its southern shore at Otsu is ten minutes from Kyoto Station by train.
Is Lake Biwa a good day trip from Kyoto?
Yes. Enryaku-ji, Ukimido, Ishiyama-dera and the Miho Museum are each within an hour of Kyoto by car, and Hikone and Omi-Hachiman make a full day together.
Is Hikone Castle original?
Yes. Hikone Castle was completed in 1622 and its keep has survived intact, one of only five castle keeps in Japan designated a National Treasure.
How do you get to the Miho Museum?
By car from Kyoto in about an hour, or by train to Ishiyama and then about fifty minutes by bus. The museum is reached from its entrance pavilion through a tunnel and over a suspension bridge.
Is Enryaku-ji in Kyoto or Shiga?
Enryaku-ji stands on Mount Hiei on the border of the two, with most of the temple in Otsu, Shiga. It is part of the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto World Heritage Site.
How big is Lake Biwa?
Lake Biwa covers about 670 square kilometres, making it the largest freshwater lake in Japan, and it is one of the oldest lakes in the world.
Can Lake Biwa be part of a private tour of Japan?
Yes. The Custom Tour of Japan is created around your party alone, on your dates, with a Tour Director beside you, and it can include Lake Biwa. For independent travel, the Expert Japan Itinerary plans every day for you.
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Lake Biwa, planned for you.
Tell us when you would like to travel and what draws you to Lake Biwa. We will answer with a journey shaped around it: one of our tours, a journey of The Private Collection, or a Custom Tour of Japan created around your party alone.