Place · lake

Lake Biwa

Lake Biwa is the largest freshwater lake in Japan, in Shiga prefecture north-east of Kyoto. One of the oldest lakes in the world, it supplies water to Kyoto and Osaka. Its shores were strategically important in the Sengoku period, when castles such as Odani, Azuchi and Nagahama were built on or near them.

Lake Biwa
Image: Global Land Cover Facility (GLCF) · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Mentioned in 2 state histories

Azai clan domainOda regime

See also

Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Lake Biwa. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/lake-biwa
MLA
“Lake Biwa.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/lake-biwa. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Lake Biwa.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/lake-biwa.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Lake Biwa’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/lake-biwa (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻