Nagahama Castle & Nagahama Ho Park in Shiga, Japan

Tomo Chouchou joined day-trip group tour for cherry blossom in Shiga prefecture in Japan.
Here is one of the cherry blossom spots.

Nagahama Castle (Japanese: Nagahama-jyo, 長浜城）

is located inside Nagahama Ho Park.
There are about 800 cherry trees surrounding the Nagahama Castle.

Nagahama Ho Park [Japanese: Nagahama Ho-koen, 長浜豊公園]

is one of the "100 Best Japan Sakura Spots (日本さくら名所100選)".

There is the Lake Biwa [Japanese: Biwa-ko, 琵琶湖]

in front of the Nagahama Ho Park.

Episode of Nagahama Castle & Nagahama Ho Park

Tomo & Chouchou went to Shiga prefecture with group day tour for cherry blossoms. There are so many good spots to see beautiful cherry blossoms around the Lake Biwa [Biwa-ko, 琵琶湖] in Shiga prefecture, so our tour visited several places of them. One of the cherry blossoms spots is the Nagahama Castle [Nagahama-jō, 長浜城] & Nagahama Ho Park [Ho-Koen] located in Nagahama in Shiga prefecture.
Nagahama Castle is located inside Nagahama Ho Park. There are about 800 cherry trees surrounding the Nagahama Castle. The combination of the castle and cherry blossoms were very beautiful.
Nagahama Ho-Koen is one of the "100 Best Japan Sakura Spots". While walking under the cherry trees, we admired the beauty of cherry blossoms. We even felt we were purified. Nagahama Ho Park was large. And there was the Lake Biwa. in front. We could enjoy the beautiful scenery of spring such as pink cherry blossoms, blue lake and green grasses. It was very relaxing and comfortable place to enjoy the spring! It could be nice to have a picnic in the park.

We entered Nagahama Castle. Inside the castle, it was beautiful and interesting. We could imagine the past. We also went up the castle tower [Tenshukaku, 天守閣] of Nagahama Castle. We could see the whole Nagahama Ho Park, Mount Ibuki [Ibuki-yama, 伊吹山] and Lake Biwa from the castle tower. During the cherry blossom season, the view of 800 cherry trees looks like the pink sea. It was worth to enter the castle!

Tomo & Chouchou's advices for Nagahama

1)We strongly recommend to go up the castle tower of Nagahama Castle.
2)There is a 400-year-old tree (樹齢400年の老木）in Nagahama Ho Park. The tree has been watching the all history of Nagahama. We can feel and get the strong energy from the tree!
3)A castle town [Jōkamachi, 城下町] in Nagahama still keeps the same style as it was built. Why not strolling the castle town to feel the history in old town?
4)To the Japanese history lovers, please don't forget to see the statue of Toyotomi Hideyoshi (豊臣秀吉像）in Ho-Koen and the statues of Hideyoshi & Mitsunari (秀吉・三成出逢いの像) at Nagahama station [長浜駅].

History of Nagahama Castle

Nagahama Castle was built by Hashiba Hideyoshi/ 羽柴秀吉 (former name was Kinoshita Tōkichirō/ 木下藤吉郎,  later name was Toyotomi Hideyoshi/ 豊臣秀吉). It was the first main castle which Toyotomi Hideyoshi built.
cf. Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598) was a samurai worrior and a preeminent powerful feudal lord [daimyo] who unifies Japan.
When Hideyoshi started to build the castle, that area (village) was called Imahama/ 今浜. After completing, Hideyoshi promotes to Shiromochi-Daimyo/ 城持ち大名 (=daimyo who owns a castle) and he renamed the area Nagahama/長浜 as a tribute to Oda Nobunaga/ 織田信長. So Nagahama Castle/ 長浜城 is also called Imahama Castle/ 今浜城.
cf. Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582) was a powerful samurai daimyo warlord. His successor was Toyotomi Hidesyoshi.
Unfortunately Nagahama Castle was demolished in 1615, but many parts of the castle such as stone walls were used to construct Hikone Castle/ 彦根城.
It is said that Tenbin Yagura/天秤櫓 (=Balance Scale Turret) of Hikone Castle, the gate (Daidokoro-mon/ 台所門) of Nagahama Betsuin Daitsuji Temple/ 長浜別院大通寺, the front gate (Omote-mon/ 表門) of Chizenin/ 知善院 Temple have been moved from Nagahama Castle. Then in 1909, the park was built on the ruins of the Nagahama Castle. This park was named Ho Park [Ho-Koen/ 豊公園] after Toyotomi Hideyoshi who owned Nagahama castle.
cf.Toyotomi in Kanji: 豊臣. Toyo 豊 is also called Ho.
People in Nagahama strongly wished to rebuild the Nagahama Castle then they collected contributions to the castle. In 1983, Nagahama castle was reconstructed.
Nagahama Castle is now Nagahama Castle Historical Museum/ 長浜市長浜城歴史博物館. The appearance is the castle. However it's a museum about the city of Nagahama.

Information

Nagahama Castle Historical Museum [長浜市長浜城歴史博物館]
Address: 10-10 Koencho, Nagahama, Shiga, Japan

              滋賀県長浜市公園町10-10
Opening hours: 9am - 5pm (Entry is allowed until 4:30pm) All year long
Admission fee: Adult 400yen, 6-15 years old 200yen

Nagahama Ho Park (Ho-Koen) [長浜豊公園]
Address: Koencho, Nagahama, Shiga
             滋賀県長浜市公園町

Access: 5-10 minutes walk from JR Nagahama station [JR長浜駅]　

Opening hours: 24hours
Admission fee: free
About 140 cars are available in the parking place
There are public toilets in the park.

 

Chery blossom season: from Early April to Mid April

There is night illumination for several days.