En un regard
Le château en bref
Mount Hachiman, or Kakuyoku-zan, 272 metres high, overlooks the town founded at the same time as the castle. After the Shikoku campaign, Toyotomi Hidetsugu, nephew of Hideyoshi, received Ōmi and began the castle and its castle town in 1585. The layout separated the summit, devoted to defence, from the lord's residence, installed in a valley below the ni-no-maru. The works were completed by the Hachiman-bori moat, linked to Lake Biwa, serving both as a defence and as a transport route, while merchants from Azuchi, according to a recent article, settled in the new town.
Hidetsugu left for Kiyosu around 1590–1591 and handed the place over to Kyōgoku Takatsugu. In 1595, accused of plotting, he died on Mount Kōya, and the castle was abandoned barely a decade after its founding: the town outlived it and prospered through commerce. Fragments of stone walls remain on the mountain, more legible at the summit, along with gold-leaf tiles unearthed during excavations begun in 2000. The Zuiryū-ji temple, founded in memory of Hidetsugu by his mother and initially established in Kyoto, has occupied the site of the honmaru since 1961, accessible by cable car. No national protection has been identified for the castle.
