Do you wanna avoid COVID infection? But you also want to enjoy visiting places, right?
How about going to historical places for you? It is absolutely sparse population, so you do not need to take care of infection so much.
What I recommend visiting is “Mt.Shizugatake” which is located on the east side of Lake Biwa, Shiga prefecture.
Access
- Osaka -> Maibara[Shinkansen] -> Kinomoto [JR] -> Shizugaake entrance 2.5 hour[walk]
- Kansai International Airport -> Shizugatake entrance 2.5 hour[Car]
Story
Hashiba [50000 men] vs Shibata [27000 men]
A big samurai war “battle of shizugatake” happened between 2 powers 400 years ago.
One of the most powerful heads of clans, Hashiba defeated the enemies, Shibata in the war around this mountain.
A lord Sakuma who belonged to Shibata attacked Hashiba. His army had the advantage, so He repeated to ask Shibata to attack them. But, Shibata never moved. After a while, Sakuma was running out from the field, Shibata’s army saw and also escaped.
Hashiba decisively established the central government’s control of Japan by winning this war. His success story is well known among Japanese people. It is said that he was just a peasant, but he was one of the most promoted men in Japanese history.
His great power contributed to the end of the samurai war era. This bloody era had been kept for about 200 years until he had made it finished. He built Osaka castle as you know.
View
The view from this mountain is stunning. You will have a thought that why on earth they were fighting on such a beautiful place. You can see 2 big lakes (Lake Biwa and Lake Yogo), and a wide flat field of rice. You can go to the top for 1 hour on foot, but the other choice is a lift. The lift will take you to the top soon. Therefore the view for downhill is good, I recommend using it when you are going down the hill. Even old persons can climb up without taking a big risk.
There are many legends that has been told about this place.
“Lake for washing neck”, It is said that Hashiba’s army washed the neck of the samurai who was killed in the Battle of Shizugatake.
“Tomb of Kiyohide Nakagawa”, Nakagawa who was Hashiba’s side lord died in this war.
Lift Fee
Round
Adult : 900 yen, Child : 500 yen
One way
Adult : 500 yen, Child : 250 yenDECLINE
