Hikone City with trust and autonomic intention


Following the cherry blossom viewing of last week, my wife and I visited Hikone Castle for cherry blossom viewing. Hikone Castle is approximately 75 kilometers north-east of Daigo-ji Temple, Kyoto, so the climate in Hikone is nearly the same as Kyoto. If the weather in April had been normal, we could have gone cherry blossom viewing there this week. But yet, the weather of the previous week was so cold that the cherry blossom viewing in Hikone Castle was sufficiently joyful. The weather in April in Japan is fickle every year, so good weather on a holiday enables people to be overwhelmed in the love of cherry blossom viewing.


Hikone Castle


The cherry blossoms in Hikone Castle are beautiful. The roofs, the white walls and the stone walls of the castle as well as the moats add change and harmony to the cherry blossoms.



The view from the top floor of the main tower caputures calm Hikone towns and Biwa-ko Lake in the distance. Hikone towns have pretty low buildings, they seem to restrict the height of them to keep the beautiful view from the castle.


Hikone Castle was built by Naomasa Ii in 1604, when is four years after the decisive-battle in Sekigahara between Tokugawa and Toyotomi. The Hikone distinction is the most important place for transportation and economy between the east and the west, and Hikone Castle was for guarding against the eastern power of Toyotomi. The castle is beautiful and strategic for guarding.


Naomasa was one of the four significant supporting samurais for Ieyasu Tokugawa who was the founder of Tokugawa shogunates, and historical lords of Hikone Castle were often elected to the top governor of Tokugawa shogunates. One of the family precepts of Ii was to guard Tokugawa shogunates absolutely.




Hikone City


Hikone towns keep the atmosphere of samurai towns, we walked around joyfully. We met Hiko-nyan(in the middle of the picture), the first popular yuru-chara. He is a white cat with a red samurai helmet, the white cat is related to a lord of the castle and the red samurai helmet with two horns is the copy of the helmet of the first lord, Naomasa. After all, Hiko-nyan wears the respect for the historical lords of the castle.




Naosuke Ii


While strolling around the castle we found some traces of Naosuke Ii. Naosuke was the fifteenth lord and the top governor of Tokugawa shogunates from 1857 to 1860. He was the fourteenth son of the thirteenth lord and the son of a normal-level mother. He had no hope to make of being a success as a noble samurai and forged himself to be a big developer in the tea ceremony and other cultures.


Nonetheless, his strange fate changed his life on the big wave of history. He became the fifteenth lord, and the most significant incident happened for then Japan, it was the coming of American battle ships for the first time. The incident forced Japan into a big chaos. At that time he was invited to join governors of Tokugawa shogunates, and at last he was elected the top governor. He permitted the opening of Japan to America without the emperor’s approval. It caused strong opposition energy against him around Japan. He concentrated a notorious suppression, “the suppression in the Ansei Era” against opponents, he exiled some governors and executed a lot of samurais. It is said that his own thoughts were similar to his opponents, but if it was true, it follows that he made a point of suppressing his opponents in violation of his own thoughts. Many Japanese people hate him, but to say words for him, he only did it in order to guard the Tokugawa shogunates. A lot of samurais plotted to assassinate him and he noticed it, but he didn’t increase his samurai guards. He might have been ready to sacrifice himself in order to guard Tokugawa shogunates. Finally, he was assassinated on the way to the commune to Edo Castle in front of Sakurada Gate on a snowy morning. He has been an infamous heel in Japan, but also I think so, but yet as a result, the two incidents regarding him prompted Japan’s moving from the Tokugawa Era to the next Meiji Era.




The citizens’ love to their lords



However, the Hikone citizens seems to try to regain his honor. It is said that he was a good lord in Hikone. Hiko-nyan is surely a parody character of a lord but there is no irony but friendship. By turning my viewpoint, there is some evidence to show good relationships between the castle and the towns.


The exterior of the main tower is majestic but gentle. The reason is in the frames of the windows. These are similar to the ones of temples, then these make the people who see them became gentle. Moreover, the castle has a lot of elements of frugality. The inside of the main tower is simple and the house where the historical lords lived is built in frugality, for example, the walls of the house were made by only soil which is not expensive with no color. These seem for the historical lords to govern the citizens kindly and not to oppress them with economic pressures.


The lords, who have governed the citizens, and the citizens, who have been governed by the lords, they were different from their positions but the spirit of “Wa”(the most important spiritual precept) might have been shared. In addition, such governing style by the historical lords might have brewed trust between the lords and the citizens, and it made Hikone a particular autonomic city where the citizens love the lord who has been hated by many Japanese people. Hikone is a quiet autonomic city.

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