The was a security checkpoint which was established by the

Tokugawa Shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia ...

on the Tōkaidō highway connecting the capital of

Edo Edo ( ja, , , "bay-entrance" or "estuary"), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a ''jōkamachi'' (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the ''de facto'' capital of ...

with

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...

Japan. Its official name was the . In 1921, the site was recognized as a National Historic Site, and in recognition that it had only surviving Edo-period checkpoint structure remaining in the country, its status was upgraded to that of a Special National Historic Site in 1962.

Overview

Located between

Maisaka-juku was the thirtieth of the fifty-three stations of the Tōkaidō. It is located in the western portion of Hamamatsu in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. During the Edo period, the area was part of Tōtōmi Province. The ''kanji'' for the post station ...

and

Arai-juku was the thirty-first of the fifty-three stations of the Tōkaidō. It is located in the city of Kosai, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. During the Edo period, it was located in Tōtōmi Province. The ''kanji'' for the post station were originally ...

, in what is now the city of Kosai,

Shizuoka Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Shizuoka Prefecture has a population of 3,637,998 and has a geographic area of . Shizuoka Prefecture borders Kanagawa Prefecture to the east, Yamanashi Prefecture to the northea ...

, the Arai Barrier was strategically positioned on the narrow strip of land between

Lake Hamana is a brackish lagoon in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. Formerly a true lake, it is now connected to the Pacific Ocean by a channel. As an internal body of water, it is considered Japan's tenth-largest lake (by area). It spans the boundaries of the ...

and the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

, and was the only checkpoint on the Tōkaidō intended for travelers both by land and by water. All travelers were required to submit to an examination of their travel permits, and taxes were levied on commercial travelers with merchandise. The checkpoint was initially managed by the , a ''

hatamoto A was a high ranking samurai in the direct service of the Tokugawa shogunate of feudal Japan. While all three of the shogunates in Japanese history had official retainers, in the two preceding ones, they were referred to as ''gokenin.'' However ...

'' post with a revenue of 1000 ''

koku The is a Chinese-based Japanese unit of volume. 1 koku is equivalent to 10 or approximately , or about . It converts, in turn, to 100 shō and 1000 gō. One ''gō'' is the volume of the "rice cup", the plastic measuring cup that is supplied ...

'', who was assisted by six ''

yoriki were members of the ''samurai'' class of feudal Japan. ''Yoriki'' literally means ''helper'' (ru - помощник) or ''assistant'' (ru - ассистент). Description and history ''Yoriki'' assisted ''daimyō'' (feudal lords) or their desig ...

'' and 20 ''dōshin''. From 1696, the post was to be held by two men who served in alternate years; however, the position was abolished in 1702 and the Arai Barrier was thereafter managed by

Yoshida Domain was a Japanese feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in Mikawa Province located in eastern Mikawa Province (modern-day eastern Aichi Prefecture), Japan. It was centered on Yoshida Castle in what is now the cit ...

on behalf of the shogunate. The initial checkpoint, built in the year 1600, was destroyed by a

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explo ...

during the

Genroku was a after Jōkyō and before Hōei. The Genroku period spanned the years from the ninth month of 1688 to the third month of 1704. The reigning emperor was .Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). ''Annales des empereurs du japon'', p. 415. The period was ...

period (1688-1703) and rebuilt only to be destroyed again during the

1707 Hōei earthquake The struck south-central Japan at 14:00 local time on 28 October. It was the largest earthquake in Japanese history until it was surpassed by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake. It caused moderate to severe damage throughout southwestern Honshu, Sh ...

. It was then moved to its current location on the western shore of

. The structures were rebuilt again after the

1854 Ansei-Tōkai earthquake Events January–March * January 4 – The McDonald Islands are discovered by Captain William McDonald aboard the ''Samarang''. * January 6 – The fictional detective Sherlock Holmes is perhaps born. * January 9 – The Teut ...

. The main building is a single-story structure facing south, with ''

Irimoya The East Asian hip-and-gable roof (''Xiēshān'' (歇山) in Chinese, ''Irimoya'' (入母屋) in Japanese, and ''Paljakjibung'' (팔작지붕) in Korean) also known as 'resting hill roof', consists of a hip roof that slopes down on all four sides ...

gambrel A gambrel or gambrel roof is a usually symmetrical two-sided roof with two slopes on each side. (The usual architectural term in eighteenth-century England and North America was "Dutch roof".) The upper slope is positioned at a shallow angle, w ...

sides and a tiled roof. It is long from east to west, and is divided into several rooms within. Following the

Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...

, the barrier was abolished in 1869, and its buildings were converted for use as an elementary school, followed by government offices until 1951. The main building was restored in 1971, and additional buildings, such as gates and a pier, were re-created in 1998 on their original foundations as part of a museum.

Gallery

File:Entrance to Arai no Seki.JPG, Entrance to Arai Barrier File:Arai Checking Station.JPG, Arai Barrier File:Arai no Seki 02.JPG, Arai Barrier File:Arai no Seki 01.JPG, Arai Barrier File:Arai_no_Seki_interior_01.JPG, Arai Barrier interior File:Araisekisho Historical Museum.JPG, Arai Barrier Museum File:Arai (5759536868).jpg, Travellers approaching Arai in

Hiroshige Utagawa Hiroshige (, also ; ja, 歌川広重 ), born Andō Tokutarō (; 1797 – 12 October 1858), was a Japanese ''ukiyo-e'' artist, considered the last great master of that tradition. Hiroshige is best known for his horizontal-format l ...

's ''

ukiyoe Ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art which flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings of such subjects as female beauties; kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers; scenes from history and folk ...

'' print of ''

The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō , in the Hōeidō edition (1833–1834), is a series of ukiyo-e woodcut prints created by Utagawa Hiroshige after his first travel along the Tōkaidō in 1832. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tōkaidō Gojūsan tsugi''" in ''Japan Encyclope ...

References

*Carey, Patrick. ''Rediscovering the Old Tokaido:In the Footsteps of Hiroshige''. Global Books UK (2000). *Nenzi, Laura. ''Excursions in Identity: Travel and the Intersection of Place, Gender, and Status in Edo Japan''. University of Hawaii Press (2008) *Taganau, Jilly. ''The Tokaido Road: Travelling and Representation in Edo and Meiji Japan''. RoutledgeCurzon (2004). *Vaporis, Constantine. ''Breaking Barriers: Travel and the State in Early Modern Japan'', Harvard University Asia Center (1995).

External links

Shiuoka Prefecture home page

Notes

{{reflist Special Historic Sites 1600 establishments in Japan Museums in Shizuoka Prefecture Tourist attractions in Shizuoka Prefecture Kosai, Shizuoka

Overview

Gallery

See also

References

External links

Notes