was the forty-eighth 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 ...

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 ...

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. It is located in former

Mino Province was a province of Japan in the area of Japan that is today southern Gifu Prefecture. Mino was bordered by Ōmi to the west, Echizen and Hida to the north, and Shinano to the east, and Ise, Mikawa, and Owari to the south. Its abbreviat ...

in what is now part of the city of

Mizunami Nakasendō.html"_;"title="Hosokute-juku_on_the_Nakasendō">Hosokute-juku_on_the_ Hosokute-juku_on_the_Nakasendō_">Nakasendō.html"_;"title="Hosokute-juku_on_the_Nakasendō">Hosokute-juku_on_the_Nakasendō_ _is_a_Cities_of_Japan">city_located_in_ ...

Gifu Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Gifu Prefecture has a population of 1,991,390 () and has a geographic area of . Gifu Prefecture borders Toyama Prefecture to the north; Ishikawa Prefecture to the northwest, F ...

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 ...

.Nakasendo Hosokute-juku
. Ibisoku Co., Ltd. Accessed July 11, 2007.

History

In the early

, the system of post stations on the Nakasendō was formalized 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 ...

in 1602. The route between

Ōkute-juku was the forty-seventh of the sixty-nine stations of the Nakasendō connecting Edo with Kyoto in Edo period Japan. It is located in former Mino Province in what is now part of the city of Mizunami, Gifu Prefecture, Japan. Alternative ''kanji'' ...

and

Mitake-juku 270px, Site of the ''honjin''. was the forty-ninth of the sixty-nine stations of the Nakasendō connecting Edo with Kyoto in Edo period Japan. It is located in former Mino Province in what is now part of the town of Mitake, Kani District, G ...

was long and the terrain was difficult, crossing the Biwa-toge Pass, so another post station was established as a resting spot in-between in 1610. This was Hosokute-juku, and it is located within the territory of

Owari Domain The was a feudal domain of Japan in the Edo period. Located in what is now the western part of Aichi Prefecture, it encompassed parts of Owari, Mino, and Shinano provinces. Its headquarters were at Nagoya Castle. At its peak, it was rated at ...

. The temple of Kaigen-in, the ''

bodaiji A in Japanese Buddhism is a temple which, generation after generation, takes care of a family's dead, giving them burial and performing ceremonies in their soul's favor.Iwanami kojien The name is derived from the term , which originally meant jus ...

'' of the

Toki clan The is a Japanese kin group. Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie du Japon''; Papinot, (2003)"Toki," ''Nobiliare du Japon'', p. 61 retrieved 2013-5-9. History The Toki claim descent from Minamot ...

, the ''

shugo , commonly translated as “(military) governor,” “protector,” or “constable,” was a title given to certain officials in feudal Japan. They were each appointed by the ''shōgun'' to oversee one or more of the provinces of Japan. The pos ...

'' of Mino Province in the

Muromachi period The is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate (''Muromachi bakufu'' or ''Ashikaga bakufu''), which was officially established in 1338 by t ...

is located nearby, Per the 1843 guidebook issued by the , the town had a population of 256 people in 65 houses, including 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 24 ''

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 ...

''. Hosokute-juku was 364.6 kilometers to Edo. The route of the modern highway bypassed Hosokute-juku, so several old buildings of the post station have been preserved, including the ''honjin'', Daikokuya, which is still open as an inn Daikokuya official home page
/ref>

Hosokute-juku 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 Hosokute-juku dates from 1835 -1838. The print depicts travelers climbing or descending a steep slope, with paddy fields and a range of mountains in the distance. In front is samurai with a bamboo water canteen suspended from his sword. Following is a woman in green kimono with a powdered white face. Going up the slope are a farmer with a backpack followed by his wife with a sickle. To the left , with only the upper half of his torso in view is a man with two bags, and the post station in the distance.

Neighboring Post Towns

;Nakasendō :

- Hosokute-juku -

References

* * * *

External links

Hiroshige Kiso-Kaido seriesHosokute-juku on Kiso Kaido RoadGifu Nakasendo Guide

Notes

{{Nakasendō Stations of the Nakasendō Post stations in Gifu Prefecture Mizunami, Gifu Mino Province