Tanuki figurines line the roadside approaching Shigaraki — squat, glaze-dappled, many of them slightly lopsided in the way that comes from kilns rather than factories. The clay here is particular to this small basin ringed by the mountains of the Suzuka range, and potters have been working it for centuries. Koka, which absorbed Shigaraki and four other former towns into a single municipality in 2004, carries this ceramic weight quietly: the Shiga Prefectural Ceramic Cultural Park holds studios, outdoor sculpture, and a museum that functions less as a monument than as a working institution, with residencies and demonstrations ongoing.
Tea runs alongside the pottery. Asahi-miya tea and Tsuchiyama tea both come from these hills, and the presence of both in local shops is a reminder that the land produces more than clay. Older still is the Aburahino Shrine, whose worship hall, main hall, and gate with surrounding corridor are protected as cultural properties — the shrine served as a spiritual anchor for the Koka ninja clans, and the annual Aburahino Festival still fills its precincts. The ruins of Shigarakino-miya, the palace Emperor Shomu ordered built in the eighth century, sit quietly under grass nearby, a designated national historic site.
The Shigaraki Kogen Railway crosses the first Odogawa Bridge, a structure now listed as an important cultural property, threading through forested hillsides toward Kibukawa. It is a slow, unhurried line — the kind that still posts its timetable in large print at the platform — and the ride itself is a way of reading the topography that no road quite replicates.
Where to stay
A day is rarely enough.
Booking through these links supports AURA at no extra cost to you.
What converges here
4 in this city. 25 within 25 km of the city hall.
- Koka Ninja House
- Exhibition Hall of Industrial Ceramics, Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park
- Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park
- Miho Museum
- Omi Hino Merchant Museum
See 20 more
- Ishibe Historical Museum
- Rittō History Museum
- Yasu City History and Folk Museum
- Shiga Peace Museum
- Kusatsu-Juku Honjin
- Nishibori Eizaburō Memorial Explorer Museum
- Borderless Art Museum NO-MA
- Ōmihachiman City Museum
- Azuchi Castle Museum, the "House of Nobunaga"
- Vories Memorial Hall
- Shiga Museum of Art
- Shiga Prefectural Azuchi Castle Archaeological Museum
- Kawara Museum
- Kampō Museum in Shiga
- Ninja Museum of Igaryu
- Bashō Memorial Museum
- Echigawa Bintemari Museum
- Aishō-chō Historical Museum
- Lake Biwa Museum
- Zeze-yaki Museum
Distances are straight-line from the municipal office. Each website was checked in September 2026.
- Tarumi Saio Tongyu Site
- Minakuchi Okayama Castle Ruins
- Koka-gun Nakazo Iseki-gun
- Shigaraki-no-miya Palace Ruins
- Kamo Shrine Honden
- Shingu Shrine Front Gate
- Aburahi-jinja Main Hall
- Aburahi Shrine Romon and Corridor
- Aburahi Shrine Romon and Corridor
- Aburai Shrine Romon Gate and Corridor
- Yasaka Shrine Main Hall (Giga Omiya)
- Aburahi Shrine Haiden
- Iido Shrine Honden
- No. 1 Daidogawa Bridge
- Suzuka
- Muro-Akame-Aoyama
- Kibukawa
- Kibukawa
- Kibukawa
- Konan
- Terasho
- Koka
- Shigaraki
- Minakuchijo-Minami
- Aburanichi
- Minakuchi
- Shigaraki-Miyato
- Kumoi
- Mizuguchi-Ishibashi
- Chokuji
- Minakuchi-Matsuo
- Gyokkeiji-mae