Omihachiman Suigo Tour

This is a fascinating sightseeing experience that can be enjoyed in Omi Hachiman City near Lake Biwa. The city is known as the birthplace of the Omi merchants.

The Suigo Tour offers visitors the opportunity to tour the beautiful waterfront surrounded by nature on a houseboat. You can choose from a variety of boats, including hand-pulled boats, engine-powered boats, chartered boats, and regular boats.

The origin of Omi Hachiman City can be traced back to Hachimanyama Castle, which was built by Hideyoshi Toyotomi, the chief advisor to the Emperor of Japan, who ordered his nephew Hideji Toyotomi to build it as a center of control over the Omi area, replacing the abandoned Azuchi Castle.

Toyotomi Hidetsugu made the castle the economic center of Omi Province by drawing ships coming and going from Lake Biwa into the castle’s inner moat, called Yawata-bori (a man-made waterway built to connect Lake Biwa with the city center). Later, this area became the birthplace of the Omi merchants.

The origin of the Omi Hachiman Suigo Meguri Tour dates back to the time when Hideji Toyotomi took a boat trip around the Suigo area from Toyonen Bridge, imitating the elegant courtly games, to relieve the fatigue of the warring age.

The Suigo area is characterized by the growth of a grass family called reeds. A variety of living creatures, rice paddies, reservoirs, and waterways create a lush satoyama landscape.

On the Suigo Meguri, boatmen skillfully maneuver the boats and allow visitors to enjoy the reed colonies and natural beauty of the area. On a chartered boat, you can also taste the famous Omi beef sukiyaki on the boat.

The water village of Omi Hachiman is one of the eight scenic spots on Lake Biwa, “Shunshiki, Azuchi-Hachiman no Suigo,” and is popular as a scenic tourist destination. With beautiful scenery in each of the four seasons, it is a place visited by lovers of photography and painting. Waterfowls gather here and visitors can feel the blessings of nature.

The reeds begin to sprout in the spring, grow to nearly 4 meters in the summer, lose their leaves and turn golden in the autumn, and in the winter, the reeds are harvested in the field. In order to encourage the buds to sprout, the “reed burning” held in early March is an early spring tradition in Suigo.

The “Suigo Tour” allows visitors to experience the richness of Suigo. It is said to be a reenactment of the elegant courtly games enjoyed by Toyotomi Hideji to relieve the fatigue of the warring states. Omi Hachiman Suigo Meguri is definitely worth experiencing.