was the third station on the Ōsaka Kaidō (or fifty-sixth of the fifty-seven stations of the Tōkaidō). It is located in the present-day city of

Hirakata 260px, Hirakata Park is a city in northeastern Osaka Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 397,681 in 183075 households and a population density of 6100 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography Hirakat ...

Osaka Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Osaka Prefecture has a population of 8,778,035 () and has a geographic area of . Osaka Prefecture borders Hyōgo Prefecture to the northwest, Kyoto Prefecture ...

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 flourished as a port along the

Yodo River The , also called the Seta River (瀬田川 ''Seta-gawa'') and the Uji River (宇治川 ''Uji-gawa'') at portions of its route, is the principal river in Osaka Prefecture on Honshu, Japan. The source of the river is Lake Biwa in Shiga Prefectur ...

and traces of the post town can still be seen today.

History

Hirakata was formed in 1596, under the order of

Toyotomi Hideyoshi , otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: Military Innovations that Changed the Cour ...

. Though initially developed for other purposes, it became a

post town A post town is a required part of all postal addresses in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and a basic unit of the postal delivery system.Royal Mail, ''Address Management Guide'', (2004) Including the correct post town in the address increases ...

when

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 ...

extended the Tōkaidō with the creation of the Ōsaka Kaidō in 1601.History of Hirakata-shuku
. Hirakata-shuku Machikyo. Accessed December 3, 2007. In 1758, it was said that the Tōkaidō extended from

Shinagawa-juku was the one of the 53 Stations of the Tōkaidō, fifty-three stations of the Tōkaidō (road), Tōkaidō.Tōkaidō Shinag ...

Moriguchi-juku was the fourth station on the Ōsaka Kaidō (or fifty-seventh of the fifty-seven stations of the Tōkaidō). It is located in the present-day city of Moriguchi, Osaka Prefecture, Japan. It spread through the modern Honmachi, Tatsuda-dōri a ...

, and Hirakata-juku was again described as part of the Tōkaidō in 1789. Because Hirakata is located at the approximate midpoint between

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...

and

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 ...

, it was a major travel intersection. However, it not only flourished as a land-based center of traffic, but also as a port for the shipping that took place on the

. Those who traveled through Hirakata-juku for '' sankin kōtai'' were generally those who were direct descendants of Ieyasu, including the '' fudai''. In 1841, when

Tokugawa Nariyuki Tokugawa may refer to: *Tokugawa era, an alternative term for the Edo period, 1603 to 1868 *Tokugawa shogunate, a feudal regime of Japan during the Edo period **Tokugawa clan, a powerful family of Japan ***Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543–1616), most nota ...

participated in ''sankin kōtai'', he brought with him 1,639 warriors, 2,337 servants and 103 horses. It was such a large traveling party that clan representatives traveled months ahead to help prepare for the party. During the

Meiji period The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...

, train lines were developed, which had a negative effect on the post town's economy. The

JR Kyoto Line The is a commuter rail line in the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto Metropolitan Area owned and operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West). The name applies to the section of the Tōkaidō Main Line between Kyōto Station and Ōsaka Station. The Kyoto ...

(originally developed in 1876) and the

Keihan Electric Railway , known colloquially as the , , or simply , is a major Japanese private railway operator in Osaka, Kyoto, and Shiga Prefectures. The transit network includes seven lines; four main lines with heavy rolling stock, two interurban lines, and a funic ...

(developed in 1910) both provided a faster and cheaper means of transport, when compared to boats on the Yodo River.

Description of the Post Town

Hirakata-juku was located in the modern-day city's Okashin-machi, Oka, Mitsuya and Doro-machi's Yongamura. It was approximately from Kyoto and from Osaka. The roads through the post town stretched approximately and were wide. It was a long and thin post town that was bordered to the north by the Yodo River, the south by Hirakatagaoka, and the west by Mount Mannenji. In Mitsuya, which was the center of the post town, there was 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 ...

'' and two sub-''honjin'', in addition to numerous other buildings for other travelers, whether they were coming by land or river.

Neighboring Post Towns

;Ōsaka Kaidō (extended Tōkaidō) :

Yodo-juku was the second station on the Ōsaka Kaidō (or fifty-fifth of the fifty-seven stations of the Tōkaidō). It is located in the southern part of Fushimi-ku in the present-day city of Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. History Located between ...

- Hirakata-juku -

References

{{coord, 34, 48, 44, N, 135, 38, 3, E, region:JP, display=title Stations of the Tōkaidō History of Osaka Prefecture Geography of Osaka Prefecture