Culture & History

Old Fish Monger Homes

Within Hikone, these old streets faithfully preserve the feeling of a feudal Hikone of days past. A series of low, two-story buildings line the streets, their walls white, with red latticework and traditional "insect cage" windows with wooden bars. In days past, the area from today's Hon-machi 1-chome to 3-chome was known as Kamiuoya-cho (lit., "upper fishmonger's district"), and today's Shiro-machi 1-chome was called Shimouoya-cho (lit., "lower fishmonger's district"), and that the rooves of close to 40 fish shops stood along these streets for a length of 400 meters. In Hon-machi 2-chome, several houses still retain their original water wells to this day, facing the street. Within Shiro-machi is the largest of these houses, a very stately structure known as "Odonyana yashichi." Several of the houses in the fishmonger districts are designated Hikone City Cultural Assets.