---
title: Hachimanbori Canal
url: https://karigurashijourney.com/en/notes/hachimanbori-canal/
lang: en
journey: https://karigurashijourney.com/en/episodes/omihachiman/
---

# Hachimanbori Canal

A little of each town’s story　/　Omihachiman, Shiga

A 4,750-meter canal dug in 1585, when Toyotomi Hidetsugu, nephew of Hideyoshi, built his castle on Mt. Hachiman and laid out the town. Linked to Lake Biwa, it let lake boats call at the castle town, bringing people, goods and information, and with them prosperity. In 1972 a plan to fill it in was proposed, but the local Junior Chamber rallied residents under the slogan "regret begins the moment the canal is filled," its members waded in to clean the canal every Sunday, and in 1975 the prefecture cancelled the work. In 1991 the area around Hachimanbori, Shinmachi street and Nagaharacho street became Shiga's first nationally designated preservation district for groups of traditional buildings, and in 2006 the canal and Nishinoko lake were selected as Japan's first Important Cultural Landscape. The boat tour of the canal takes about 30 minutes.

## This moment in the journey: Along the Hachimanbori canal by wooden boat

Past a street of shop signs, I reached the Hachimanbori canal. It was dug in 1585, when Toyotomi Hidetsugu built his castle on Mt. Hachiman, to link the castle town with Lake Biwa. Boats crossing the lake called here, people and goods gathered, and the canal played a major role in the rise of the Omi merchants and the prosperity of the town.

I climbed into a wooden boat with a roof and windows, sat on the tatami, and watched the town from the water. White-walled storehouses stand on stone embankments, and bare cherry trees stretch their branches over the surface. The boat moved slowly through the atmospheric scenery.

Back on land, I walked along stone pavements still patched with snow. On the latticed window of a souvenir shop were notices for reed flutes, Omi mosquito nets and freshwater pearls from Lake Biwa. The white-walled street ran straight ahead.

![A wooden boat on the Hachimanbori canal between stone walls and storehouses](https://karigurashijourney.com/img/omihachiman/s24-1200.jpg)
- Sources: https://www.omi8.com/stories/hachimanbori
- Sources: https://www.omi8.com/spot/detail_1030.html

Read this scene in the full journey: https://karigurashijourney.com/en/episodes/omihachiman/