Former Tokaido: Samurai Residence Remains

After the abandoning of Otsu Castle by Tokugawa Ieyasu in the Edo period, and the construction of Zeze castle in what was once known as “Onohama,” where fresh fish from Lake Biwa were formerly procured for Emperor Tenji’s during his rule, Zeze prospered as a military castle town.

With it’s rows of houses and twisting alleyways reminiscent of the ancient Tokaido, here you can experience the traces of a lost time.

The residences the samurai of the Zeze Domain lived in during the Edo Period were surrounded with earthen, mud walls that are currently just barely visible today. However, there are still a few of these earthen walled residences preserved nearby Nakanosho Station to this day.