Shimizuen was built as the Mizoguchi family's second residence, with a pond garden, tea houses, and views composed from the rooms as carefully as from the paths. It is quiet, formal, and better than Shibata Castle if you want to feel the life of the old domain rather than just its defences.
Next door, Ashigaru Nagaya shows the other side of the hierarchy. The longhouse held foot soldiers' apartments, and surviving examples like this are rare enough that it helps make Shibata's castle-town story more complete.