Discover hidden stories of northern Lake Biwa through guided walks, local legends, temple culture, and quiet lakeside landscapes.

Experience a quieter and deeper side of Japan at Guesthouse Ko-Rai-Gen, a private temple stay beside a 600-year-old Buddhist temple near Lake Biwa in northern Shiga.

The Fire Festival, with a history of nearly 800 years, is a dramatic winter ritual held in Moriyama City, Shiga Prefecture.

Tour Design Ichie Wado specializes in a half-day "Otsu-e" folk art workshop & immersive local culture walk for foreign tourists in Otsu, Shiga. The workshop includes painting a Lucky Oni Bell on an earthenware bell. Alternatively, you could choose to paint the Three Wise Monkeys on a Japanese shikishi.

Eigenji Temple is the head temple of the Eigenji branch and one of the fifteen primary temples of the Rinzai and Obaku sects.

There is a legend that the deity worshipped at this shrine reached its current location by crossing Lake Biwa.

Shimoniikawa-jinja Shrine holds a regular spring festival in the form of the Omi Kenketo Festival, during which the Long Knife ritual takes place.

The principle object of worship here is a Buddhist image, normally withheld from public view, of Hobashira Kannon.

This is the house of the Suwa family, which in early modern times was the the ojoya (“village headman”).

This temple has been responsible for the safety of travel on the waters of Lake Biwa since the Azuchi Momoyama period.