Hikone Castle, or Hikone-jo, was built in 1622 on the site where Sawayama Castle, destroyed in 1601, was previously located.
Ii Naotsugu, son of Ii Naomasa, started construction of the castle with the support of the Shogun of Japan, Tokugawa Ieyasu.
The Meiji Restoration, in 1868, marked the end of the shogunate, and Hikone castle is one of the few original surviving castles.