In numbers
Length
63km
Average flow
57m³/s
Basin
3,843km²
Drop
121m
from 202 m to 81 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
63 km of river and 12 stops on the way: 3 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 202 m
- 24 kmLakefront Village of Sugaura103 people
- 31 kmNagahama Castle
- 39 kmKaizu Osaki
- 39 kmTsukubusuma Shrine
- 39 kmChikubu Island
- 39 kmHōgon-ji Temple
- 39 kmAnegawa Rivertributary
- 46 kmHikone113,191 people
- 59 kmAdo Rivertributary
- 63 kmŌmihachiman-shi81,545 people
- 63 kmShirahige Shrine
- 63 kmEchi Rivertributary
- 63 kmMouthat 81 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
Freshwater lake in Japan
At the mouth it carries 57 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 44 seconds. It drops from 202 m to 81 m, 1.9 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 3,843 km², about the size of CV. 270,000 people live in it. Highest water: from June to July. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- HikoneLargest city on its banks · 113,191 people
- Nagoya Airport / JASDF Komaki Air Base (NKM)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 60 km from the cityCar hire at KIX airport (Osaka)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- May and OctoberThe best months to visit
Lake Biwa, month by month
Highest water: from June to July
Best months to visit: May and October.
From about 45 m³/s in the lowest month to 71 m³/s in the highest. An estimate: the monthly flow is modelled from the lowest and highest months of WaterGAP (RiverATLAS, 1971–2000) and the rain and snow along the river (WorldClim). Dams change the real rhythm. The chip is the average air temperature; below it, the month's rain.
Plan the trip
Plan the trip: boat trips, a bed by the river, a car
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
The basin
Lake Biwa: the basin in numbers
1,558 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 270,000people live in the basin
- 182/km²people per km²
- 293maverage altitude of the basin
- 1,987mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 13.1°Caverage air temperature
- 40%protected areas
- 25.2%covered by lakes
- 0.0km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 52% Forest
- 9% Cropland
- 15% Towns and cities
RiverATLAS (HydroATLAS v1.0, CC BY 4.0): land cover, people, protected areas, glaciers and dams over the whole basin upstream of the mouth.
Along the river
Lake Biwa: what you find on the way
- 2Weirs
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.3 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Lake Biwa in our other atlases
What our sister atlases know about the waterfalls on this river, the lakes it flows through, the beaches at its mouth, the mountains where it rises and the islands off its mouth.
10mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Mountains at the source (10)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Mount Kanakuso11 km away1,317m
- Mount Sanshu12 km away1,292m
- Mount Yokoyama2.9 km away1,132m
- Shizugatake10 km away421m
- Mount Odani15 km away495m
- Mount Miashi-fuji11 km away290m
- Mount Kinukake14 km away181m
- Mikuniga-dake8.5 km away
2 more on PeakyasOpen Peakyas ↗
From space
The source and the mouth, seen from orbit
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016), CC BY 4.0. The glowing line is the river as drawn by RiverATLAS.
Photos
Lake Biwa in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (10)
Also: Anegawa River, Yasu River, Inukami River, Echi River, Ado River, Uso River, Seri River, Amano River, Hino River, Kusatsu River
In the same basin
Nearby
Rivers nearby
Japan166 km120 m³/s61 km awayYodo RiverJapan75 km210 m³/s80 km awayYoshino RiverJapan236 km140 m³/s190 km awayFuji RiverJapan128 km63 m³/s233 km awayTama RiverJapan138 km37 m³/s335 km awayArakawa RiverJapan173 km30 m³/s346 km awayShinano RiverJapan367 km460 m³/s405 km awayShimanto RiverJapan196 km500 m³/s383 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q200239) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed along the river network from the point given by Wikidata |
| Flow | WaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate along the river | WorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Towns, bridges, dams | Wikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0 |
| Along the river | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Our other atlases | Peakyas — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0; HydroLAKES · CC BY 4.0; NOAA OISST |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.
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lakes
Every lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Coming soonVisit mountains
Every summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit 
waterfalls
Every waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Coming soonVisit 
islands
Every island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Coming soonVisit 
rivers
Every river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
canyons
Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit