For the autumn tourist season, a 1:300 scale model of Hikone Castle in Hikone City, Shiga Prefecture, which has been renewed for the first time ever, went on display in Hikone Castle's Sawaguchi Tamon Yagura on November 1. Newly added parts include important facilities of the feudal-period Hikone domain, such as "Yashiki" mansion houses of high ranking samurais, and the "Umoregi-no-ya" residence, where Naosuke Ii, a chief minister of the Tokugawa Shogunate, spent his youth. The castle's keep, which forms the highest point of the model, complicated towers and moats, and the late Edo Period castle town are three-dimensionally reproduced.

The renewed model is 2.6 meters long, 3.4 meters wide and 1.7 meters high. All the designated areas of this special national historic site are totally reproduced by adding pieces between the inner and middle moats to the main sections of the castle model which were completed 38 years ago under the supervision of the late Gaijiro Fujishima, a professor emeritus in History of Architecture at the University of Tokyo.

In addition to the Umoregi-no-ya, there are other newly made buildings, including the Yashiki of the Kimata family, who were employed as chief retainers, and the "Kodokan" domain school, which once stood in the grounds of Hikone Nishi Junior High School. On the floor around the model is a same scale plan of houses of foot soldiers and town people, which shows the town districts in a clear and easy to understand fashion.

The Hikone City initiative, which is based on a recognized plan of the historical community planning rule, costs approximately 28 million yen. The city said "We had details known from pictures and photographs included as far as was possible. We want you to enjoy a bird's eye view."