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Hamamatsu is the largest city in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, set between Lake Hamana and the Tenryū River on the Pacific coast, famous as the castle town of the young Tokugawa Ieyasu, as a home of musical instrument makers such as Yamaha and Kawai, and for the eel of Lake Hamana. Each May its kite festival fills the shore.
In the Nara period it was the capital of Tōtōmi Province, and later a post town on the Tōkaidō highway. Ieyasu spent 17 years at Hamamatsu Castle, from 1570 to 1586, before he became shogun. The city later grew into an industrial center for instruments and motorcycles. Today it is home to about 780,000 people and covers a vast area, from the coast to the mountains of Tenryū in the north.
See the castle and the instrument museum in the center, then walk the wind-rippled Nakatajima dunes. Spend a day on Lake Hamana, with Kanzan-ji, the hot springs and the Flower Park. Head north for the Ii clan temple of Ryōtan-ji, the Ryūgashidō cave and the Kiga checkpoint.
Hamamatsu Castle stands in Chūō-ku, Hamamatsu, where Tokugawa Ieyasu spent 17 years before moving to Sunpu in 1586. Its rough-stacked stone walls are famous, and so many later lords rose to high office that it is called the castle of success. A concrete keep built in 1958 holds a museum.
Hamamatsu Museum of Musical Instruments opened in April 1995 in Chūō-ku, Hamamatsu, as the first public museum of musical instruments in Japan, in a city that is home to Yamaha and Kawai. It shows around 1,500 instruments from around the world, from 19th-century pianos to Javanese gamelans.
Hamamatsu Festival is held in Hamamatsu every year from 3 to 5 May, when neighborhood teams fly huge kites by the sea to celebrate the birth of children and battle to cut each other's lines. At night, ornate palace floats are pulled through the city center. It draws around two million people.
Nakatajima Sand Dunes stretch about 4 km along the Enshū-nada coast in southern Hamamatsu, ranked among the three largest dunes in Japan. Wind draws ripple patterns on the sand, loggerhead turtles come ashore to lay eggs in summer, and the festival kite battles are held nearby.
Lake Hamana is a brackish lagoon of 65 square km on the west side of Hamamatsu, the tenth-largest lake in Japan, with 114 km of winding shore. Once a freshwater lake, it opened to the sea after the earthquake of 1498. Its farmed eel is famous, served grilled over rice across the city.
Kanzan-ji is a Sōtō Zen temple on a wooded headland of Lake Hamana in Chūō-ku, Hamamatsu, said to have been founded by Kūkai in 810. Paths behind it lead past a cave shrine and a large Kannon statue to lake viewpoints, and each 15 December it holds a fire festival with fire walking.
Kanzanji Onsen is a hot spring resort on the shore of Lake Hamana in Chūō-ku, Hamamatsu, opened in 1958 and named after the nearby Kanzan-ji temple. About ten inns line the lake, close to the Flower Park, the zoo and the Pal Pal amusement park. A ropeway crosses the water to Mount Ōkusa.
Hamamatsu Flower Park is a 30-hectare botanical garden near Lake Hamana in Chūō-ku, Hamamatsu, opened on 10 September 1970 with about 3,000 kinds of plants. Renewed in 2003, it is loved for its cherry blossoms and tulips in spring, and a path inside links it to the neighboring Hamamatsu Zoo.
Ryōtan-ji is a Rinzai Zen temple in Hamana-ku, Hamamatsu, long the family temple of the Ii clan, whose founder is said to have been found as a baby by a well here in 1010. The graves of Ii Naotora and other clan members lie here, and its pond garden is a national Place of Scenic Beauty.
Ryūgashidō is a limestone cave in Hamana-ku, Hamamatsu, found by two cave explorers in 1981 and opened to the public in 1983. Formed in limestone about 250 million years old inside Mount Ryūgashi, it runs for 1,046 meters, of which 400 meters are open to visitors.
Kiga Checkpoint was set up by the Tokugawa shogunate in the early 1600s at Kiga, now in Hamana-ku, Hamamatsu, to watch travelers on the Himekaidō road north of Lake Hamana, checking guns and women passing through. Closed in 1869, it was rebuilt as a museum in 1990.
Akiha Shrine stands near the 866-meter summit of Mount Akiha in Tenryū-ku, Hamamatsu, as the head shrine of the Akiha faith, whose many branch shrines across Japan guard against fire. Its god is Hinokagutsuchi, deity of fire, and the climb rewards visitors with a wide view.
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