was the sixth of the fifty-three stations of the Tōkaidō. It is located in the present-day city of Fujisawa,

Kanagawa Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-densest at . Its geographic area of makes it fifth-smallest. Kana ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

History

Fujisawa-shuku was established as a post station on the Tōkaidō in 1601, but did not become the sixth post station until

Totsuka-juku was the fifth of the 53 Stations of the Tōkaidō, fifty-three stations (''shukuba'') of the Tōkaidō (road), Tōkaidō. It was the easternmost post station in Sagami Province. It is now located in Totsuka-ku, Yokohama, Totsuka-ku in the present ...

was later established. Before the establishment of the Tōkaidō, Fujisawa flourished as a for Shōjōkō-ji, also known as " Yugyō-ji" (), the head temple of the Ji-sect of

Japanese Buddhism Buddhism has been practiced in Japan since about the 6th century CE. Japanese Buddhism () created many new Buddhist schools, and some schools are original to Japan and some are derived from Chinese Buddhist schools. Japanese Buddhism has had a ...

. It was also located on a fork along the Odawara Kaidō, which connected

Odawara Castle is a landmark in the city of Odawara in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. History Odawara was a stronghold of the Doi clan during the Kamakura period, and a fortified residence built by their collateral branch, the Kobayakawa clan, stood on the ...

and its two supporting castles,

Edo Castle is a flatland castle that was built in 1457 by Ōta Dōkan in Edo, Toshima District, Musashi Province. In modern times it is part of the Tokyo Imperial Palace in Chiyoda, Tokyo and is therefore also known as . Tokugawa Ieyasu established the ...

and

Hachiōji Castle was a Sengoku period Japanese castle, located in what is now the city of Hachiōji, Tokyo, in the Kantō region of Japan Its ruins have been protected as a National Historic Site since 1951, with the area under protection extended in 2005. ...

during the period of the

Late Hōjō clan Late may refer to: * LATE, an acronym which could stand for: ** Limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy, a proposed form of dementia ** Local-authority trading enterprise, a New Zealand business law ** Local average treatment effect, ...

. The toward

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 ...

was to the east of Yugyō-ji, and the gate towards

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 ...

was on the western side of the modern

Odakyū Enoshima Line The is a branch line operated by the Japanese private railway operator Odakyū Electric Railway in eastern Kanagawa Prefecture. The Enoshima Line branches from the Odawara Line at Sagami-Ōno, extending south to Fujisawa and Katase-Enoshim ...

; these boundaries mark the general limits of Fujisawa-juku. It was said that there were over 1,000 buildings in the post town, including ''

honjin The ''honjin'' at Inaba Kaidō's Ōhara-shuku.">Ōhara-shuku.html" ;"title="Inaba Kaidō's Ōhara-shuku">Inaba Kaidō's Ōhara-shuku. is the Japanese word for an inn for government officials, generally located in post stations (''shukuba'') dur ...

'', ''

hatago were Edo period lodgings for travelers at '' shukuba'' (post stations) along the national highways, including the Edo Five Routes The , sometimes translated as "Five Highways", were the five centrally administered routes, or ''kaidō'', that ...

'', etc.Fujisawa-shuku Bangumi Shōkai
. Fujisawa City Hall. Accessed December 10, 2007. Up until 1745, the ''honjin'' for Fujisawa-shuku was the Horiuchi Honjin, but after that, the Maita Honjin was used. At the temple of , there are a number of graves of the ''

meshimori onna or , literally "meal-serving woman," is the Japanese term for the women who were hired by ''hatago'' inns at the '' shukuba'' (post stations) along ''kaidō'' routes in Japan during the Edo era. They were originally maidservants hired by the inn ...

'' who worked at the local ''

''. The was built at Fujisawa-shuku in the early days of 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 ...

. The first three Shōgun (

Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, which ruled Japan from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was one of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga and fellow ...

Tokugawa Hidetada was the second ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa dynasty, who ruled from 1605 until his abdication in 1623. He was the third son of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate. Early life (1579–1593) Tokugawa Hidetada was bo ...

and

Tokugawa Iemitsu Tokugawa Iemitsu (徳川家光, August 12, 1604 – June 8, 1651) was the third ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa dynasty. He was the eldest son of Tokugawa Hidetada with Oeyo, and the grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Lady Kasuga was his wet nurse, who a ...

stayed at this palace on a total of some 30 occasions. Records indicate that it was a large structure, measuring 106 x 32 bays, and was surrounded by a wide moat. It was located next to the Fujisawa

daikansho A was the office of a ''daikan'' (magistrate) during the Edo period (18th & 19th century) of Japanese history. External links Edo period Legal history of Japan {{japan-gov-stub ...

, which is now between the present-day Fujisawa Municipal Hall and the Fujisawa Municipal Hospital. It was dismantled and moved to Edo after the Great Fire of Meireki in 1657 and its materials were used to rebuild part of the Shōgunal palace at

. The classic

ukiyo-e Ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art which flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surfac ...

print by

Andō 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 ...

(Hōeidō edition) from 1831–1834 depicts a village with a bridge. In the background is the temple of Yugyō-ji on a hill, and in the foreground is a ''

torii A is a traditional Japanese gate most commonly found at the entrance of or within a Shinto shrine, where it symbolically marks the transition from the mundane to the sacred. The presence of a ''torii'' at the entrance is usually the simplest ...

'' with a path leading to

Enoshima is a small offshore island, about in circumference, at the mouth of the Katase River which flows into the Sagami Bay of Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Administratively, Enoshima is part of the mainland city of Fujisawa, and is linked to ...

. The bridge is crowded with pilgrims, and four blind men, apparently on their way to the Enoshima Benten Shrine are following each other alongside a stream.

Neighboring post towns

;Tōkaidō :

- Fujisawa-shuku -

Hiratsuka-juku was the seventh of the fifty-three stations (''shukuba'') of the Tōkaidō. It is located in the present-day city of Hiratsuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. History Hiratsuka-juku was first established in 1601, at the orders of Tokugawa Ieyasu ...

History

Neighboring post towns

References

Further reading