The was a

highway A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It is used for major roads, but also includes other public roads and public tracks. In some areas of the United States, it is used as an equivalent term to controlled-acces ...

in Japan 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 characte ...

. It was a secondary route, ranked below the

Edo Five Routes The , sometimes translated as "Five Highways", were the five centrally administered routes, or ''kaidō'', that connected the ''de facto'' capital of Japan at Edo (now Tokyo) with the outer provinces during the Edo period (1603–1868). The most ...

in importance. Because it was developed for travelers going to

Zenkō-ji is a Buddhist temple located in the city of Nagano, Japan. The temple was built in the 7th century. The modern city of Nagano began as a town built around the temple. Historically, Zenkō-ji is perhaps most famous for its involvement in the b ...

, it was also called ''Zenkō-ji Kaidō'' (善光寺街道). It stretched from 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 69 ...

's Oiwake-juku to the

Hokurikudō is a Japanese geographical term. It means both an ancient division of the country and the main road running through the old Japanese geographical region.Nussbaum, "''Hokurikudō''" in Both were situated along the northwestern edge of Honshū. ...

's Takada-shuku. Nowadays, the route is traced by Route 18, stretching between the town of Karuizawa and the city of Jōetsu. Although it ranked below the five major routes, the Hokkoku Kaidō was an important link between the Kantō region and the

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, i ...

side of

Honshu , historically called , is the largest and most populous island of Japan. It is located south of Hokkaidō across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyūshū across the Kanmon Straits. The island se ...

. It carried marine products and gold from the mines on Sado. Daimyō from the Hokuriku region travelled it on their sankin kōtai journeys between their domains and Edo.

Stations of the Hokkoku Kaidō

Though there were 25 post stations along the Hokkoku Kaidō, some of the stations were .Aijuku: Two or more inns that operated alternately, in areas where there was not enough traffic to support a full-time station. Additionally, Nezumi-shuku and Shinonoi Oiwake-shuku were mid stations (, at which stayovers were not permitted, reducing the number where travellers could stay to 17. The stations are divided by present-day prefectures below, with the municipality in parentheses.Shinshū no Kaidō Hōmon: Hokkoku Kaidō
Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. Accessed August 18, 2007.

Nagano Prefecture

:Starting Location: Oiwake-juku (追分宿) ( Karuizawa,

Kitasaku District is a district located in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. As of December 1, 2005, the district has an estimated population of 40,041. The district has three towns * Karuizawa *Miyota * Tateshina District Timeline *On April 1, 2004, the village of ...

) :1. Komoro-shuku (小諸宿) ( Komoro) :2. Tanaka-juku (田中宿) and Unno-juku (海野宿) ( Tōmi) :3. Ueda-shuku (上田宿) ( Ueda) :*Nezumi-shuku (鼠宿) (

Sakaki ''Cleyera japonica'' (sakaki) is a flowering evergreen tree native to warm areas of Japan, Taiwan, China, Myanmar, Nepal, and northern India (Min and Bartholomew 2015). It can reach a height of 10 m. The leaves are 6–10 cm long, smooth, ...

, Hanashina District) :4. Sakaki-shuku (坂木宿) (Sakaki, Hanishina District) :5. Kami Kurashina-shuku (上戸倉宿) and Shimo Kurashina-juku (下戸倉宿) ( Chikuma) :6. Yashiro-shuku (屋代宿) (Chikuma) :*Shinonoi Oiwake-shuku (篠ノ井追分宿) (

Nagano Nagano may refer to: Places * Nagano Prefecture, a prefecture in Japan ** Nagano (city), the capital city of the same prefecture *** Nagano 1998, the 1998 Winter Olympics *** Nagano Olympic Stadium, a baseball stadium in Nagano *** Nagano Universi ...

) :7. Tanbajima-shuku (丹波島宿) (Nagano) :8. Zenkōji-shuku (善光寺宿) (Nagano) :9. Shinmachi-shuku (新町宿) (Nagano) :10. Mure-juku (牟礼宿) (

Iizuna is a town located in the Kamiminochi District of norther Nagano Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 11,115 in 4187 households, and a population density of 150 persons per km2. the total area of the town is . Geography I ...

Kamiminochi District is a district located in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. As of 2011, the district has an estimated population of 23,774. As a result of mergers the total area of the district is now 282.65 km2. Towns and villages *Iizuna * Shinano * Ogawa M ...

) :11. Furuma-shuku (古間宿) and Kashiwabara-juku (柏原宿) ( Shinano, Kamiminochi District) :12. Nojiri-shuku (野尻宿) (Shinano, Kamiminochi District)

Niigata Prefecture is a prefecture in the Chūbu region of Honshu of Japan. Niigata Prefecture has a population of 2,227,496 (1 July 2019) and is the fifth-largest prefecture of Japan by geographic area at . Niigata Prefecture borders Toyama Prefecture and ...

:13. Sekigawa-shuku (関川宿) and Uehara-juku (上原宿) ( Myōkō) :14. Tagiri-shuku (田切宿) and Futamata-juku (二俣宿) (Myōkō) :15. Sekiyama-shuku (関山宿) (Myōkō) :16. Matsuzaki-shuku (松崎宿) and Nippongi-juku (二本木宿) ( Nakagō-ku, Jōetsu) :17. Arai-shuku (荒井宿) (Myōkō) :Ending Location: Takada-shuku (高田宿) ( Jōetsu)

69 Stations of the Nakasendō The are the rest areas along the Nakasendō, which ran from Nihonbashi in Edo (modern-day Tokyo) to Sanjō Ōhashi in Kyoto.Yama to Keikoku Publishing (2006). Nakasendō o Aruku (Revised ed.). Osaka: Yama to Keikoku Publishing. .Kōshū Kaidō The was one of the five routes of the Edo period. It was built to connect Edo (modern-day Tokyo) with Kai Province in modern-day Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan. The route continues from there to connect with the Nakasendō's Shimosuwa-shuku in ...

Ōshū Kaidō The was one of the five routes of the Edo period. It was built to connect Edo (modern-day Tokyo) with Mutsu Province and the present-day city of Shirakawa, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. It was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu for government offic ...

Nikkō Kaidō The was one of the five routes of the Edo period and it was built to connect Edo (modern-day Tokyo) with the temple-shrine complex of the Mangan-ji and Tōshōsha (now called the Rinnō-ji and Tōshōgū), which are located in the present-day ...

*Other Routes **

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 establ ...

Mikuni Kaidō was an ancient highway in Japan that stretched from Takasaki-juku (present day Gunma Prefecture) on the Nakasendō to Teradomari-juku (present day Niigata Prefecture) on the Hokurikudō. History The Mikuni Pass separated the Kantō region from Ech ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hokkoku Kaido Road transport in Japan Edo period

Stations of the Hokkoku Kaidō

Nagano Prefecture

Niigata Prefecture is a prefecture in the Chūbu region of Honshu of Japan. Niigata Prefecture has a population of 2,227,496 (1 July 2019) and is the fifth-largest prefecture of Japan by geographic area at . Niigata Prefecture borders Toyama Prefecture and ...

See also

References