was the thirty-seventh of the sixty-nine stations of the

Nakasendō The , also called the ,Richard Lane, ''Images from the Floating World'' (1978) Chartwell, Secaucus ; pg. 285 was one of the five routes of the Edo period, and one of the two that connected Edo (modern-day Tokyo) to Kyoto in Japan. There were 6 ...

highway connecting Edo 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 ...

during the

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 ...

. It was located in the present-day city of Kiso, in the

Kiso District is a district located in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. As of November 1, 2005, the district has an estimated population of 34,759. The total area is 1,546.26 km2. Historically, the district was once known as Nishichikuma District (西筑摩郡) ...

Nagano Prefecture is a landlocked prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Nagano Prefecture has a population of 2,052,493 () and has a geographic area of . Nagano Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture to the north, Gunma Prefecture to the ...

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 ...

. It was also numbered as the fifth of eleven stations on the

Kisoji The was an old trade route in the Kiso Valley that stretched from Niekawa-juku in Nagano Prefecture to Magome-juku in Gifu Prefecture. There were eleven resting spots along the route, all of which became part of the Nakasendō when it was establish ...

highway.

History

A settlement for travelers existed in this location since at least the ''

Eiroku was a after '' Kōji'' and before ''Genki.'' This period spanned the years from February 1558 through April 1570. The reigning emperor was . Change of era * 1558 : The era name was changed to mark the enthronement of Emperor Ōgimachi. The pre ...

'' era (1558–1570) of the

Sengoku period The was a period in History of Japan, Japanese history of near-constant civil war and social upheaval from 1467 to 1615. The Sengoku period was initiated by the Ōnin War in 1467 which collapsed the Feudalism, feudal system of Japan under the ...

, as it was located approximately at the midpoint of the route between Kyoto and Edo, and midpoint on the Kisoji. During the Edo period, the post station was greatly enlarged as it became the seat of a ''

daikan ''Daikan'' (代官) was an official in Japan that acted on behalf of a ruling monarch or a lord at the post they had been appointed to. Since the Middle Ages, ''daikan'' were in charge of their territory and territorial tax collection. In the Edo ...

'' administrator appointed 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 ...

to oversee one of the four major checkpoints for regulation of travelers on the Nakasendō. Per an 1843 guidebook issued by the , the town stretched for about 1.1 kilometers along the highway, with a population of 972 in 158 houses, with one ''

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 ...

'', one ''waki-honjin,'' and 14 ''

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 ...

''. Fukushima-shuku was approximately 2 ''ri'', 14- ''chō'' (18.8 kilometers) from

Agematsu-juku was the thirty-eighth of the sixty-nine stations of the Nakasendō, as well as the sixth of eleven stations on the Kisoji. It is located in the present-day town of Agematsu, in the Kiso District of Nagano Prefecture, Japan. From the present-day J ...

.Kisoji Fukushima-jukuhuku
Accessed July 17, 2017.

Fukushima Barrier

The was one of several security checkpoints established by the Tokugawa Shogunate on the Nakasendō.
. Higashi Nihon Denshin Denwa. Accessed July 26, 2007. Located at the northern end of Fukushima-juku, the site of the barrier approximately a 15-minute walk from

Kiso-Fukushima Station is a railway station in the town of Kiso, Nagano Prefecture, Japan, operated by Central Japan Railway Company (JR Tōkai). Lines Kiso-Fukushima Station is served by the JR Tōkai Chūō Main Line, and is located 263.8 kilometers from the o ...

. The barrier was founded between 1602 and 1604, and had stone walls and a building for officials who could monitor traffic and inspect travelers for their travel permits and illicit goods. It was abolished in 1868 after 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 ...

, but the east and west gates of the compound were reconstructed based on archaeological excavations conducted in 1975, and now form part of a historical park. The site was designated a National Historic Site of Japan in 1979.

Fukushuma-shuku in ''The Sixty-nine Stations of the Kiso Kaidō''

Utagawa 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 ''

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 of Fukushima-juku depicts the Fukushima Barrier, with two travelers in the background kneeling before an official as their documents are examined. In the foreground, a porter with loaded panniers passes in front of an elderly samurai with a stick walking away from the barrier. Behind, a man with his face hidden by a large green cloak and a sedge hat and two travellers approach the gate.

Neighboring Post Towns

Nakasendō & Kisoji *

Miyanokoshi-juku was the thirty-sixth of the sixty-nine stations of the Nakasendō, as well as the fourth of eleven stations on the Kisoji. It is located in the present-day town of Kiso, in the Kiso District of Nagano Prefecture, Japan. History Miyanokoshi was t ...

– Fukushima-juku –

References

External links

* *
Hiroshige Kiso-Kaido seriesFukushima-juku on Kiso Kaido Road
{{Nakasendō Stations of the Nakasendō Stations of the Nakasendo in Nagano Prefecture Historic Sites of Japan Kiso, Nagano (town)