260px, Modern Minakuchi-juku 260px, Minakuchi-juku in 1923 was the fiftieth of the fifty-three stations of the Tōkaidō highway connecting

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 ...

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 was located in the Minakuchi neighborhood of the present-day city of

Kōka was a after ''Tenpō'' and before ''Kaei.'' This period spanned the years from December 1844 through February 1848. The reigning emperors were and . Change of era * December 2, 1844 (): The new era name of ''Kōka'', meaning "Becoming Wide ...

, Shiga 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 ...

History

Minakuchi-juku developed as early as 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 ...

, as its location was convenient for travelers going to the

Ise Grand Shrine The , located in Ise, Mie Prefecture of Japan, is a Shinto shrine dedicated to the sun goddess Amaterasu. Officially known simply as , Ise Jingū is a shrine complex composed of many Shinto shrines centered on two main shrines, and . The Inn ...

and

Ise Bay is a bay located at the mouth of the Kiso Three Rivers between Mie and Aichi Prefectures in Japan. Ise Bay has an average depth of and a maximum depth of . The mouth of the bay is and is connected to the smaller Mikawa Bay by two channels: th ...

. In the early

, the system of post stations on the Tōkaidō 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 1601, Minakuchi-juku became an official post station. It was on the ''

sankin-kōtai ''Sankin-kōtai'' ( ja, 参覲交代/参覲交替, now commonly written as ja, 参勤交代/参勤交替, lit=alternate attendance, label=none) was a policy of the Tokugawa shogunate during most of the Edo period of Japanese history.Jansen, M ...

'' route by many western ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and n ...

'' to-and-from the Shogun's court in

Minakuchi Castle thumbnail, 260px, layout of Minakuchi Castle thumbnail, 260px, Another view of the ''yagura'' , is a ''hirashiro''-style Japanese castle located in the former town of Minakuchi, in the city of Kōka, Shiga Prefecture, Japan. The castle is also ...

was constructed in 1634 on the western border of the town by

Shogun , officially , was the title of the military dictators of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, though during part of the Kamakur ...

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 ...

as a way station where he could stay at during his travels between Edo and Kyoto. It was built in a similar fashion to Nijō Castle.Minakuchi Castle
/ref> Minakuchi was thus both a post station and a castle town, In 1682,

Minakuchi Domain was a '' Fudai'' feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan. It was located in southeastern Ōmi Province, in the Kansai region of central Honshu. The domain was centered at Minakuchi Castle, located in what is now the city ...

was created with a cadet branch of the

Katō clan Kato or Katō may refer to: Places *Kato, Guyana, a village in Guyana *Katō, Hyōgo, a city in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan *Katō District, Hokkaido, a district located in Tokachi Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan *Katowice, a city in Southern Poland, ...

ruling until 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 ...

. Per the 1843 guidebook issued by the , the town had a population of 2692 in 692 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 41 ''

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 ...

''. It had one ''Tonyaba'', for the stabling of packhorses and warehousing of goods, and one ''

kōsatsu The Kōsatsu (, literally "High plaque"), also called Seisatu (, literally "Controlling plaque"), was the public notice of the han-lord's or shogun's proclamations in the Japanese history. They were the local or nationwide laws written on the woode ...

'' for the display of official notifications. It was 443.8 kilometers from Edo. Minakuchi was noted for three famous local products. was a form of basketry made from woven wisteria vines, and occasionally from thin strips of wood. It formed lightweight containers which (amongst many other uses) could be used as a form of suitcase for travelers on the highway. was a pipe for smoking powdered tobacco, and was a popular souvenir for travelers to purchase. The production of ''kanpyō'', dried shavings of a type of calabash, which was a popular ingredient in Edo period

Japanese cuisine Japanese cuisine encompasses the regional and traditional foods of Japan, which have developed through centuries of political, economic, and social changes. The traditional cuisine of Japan (Japanese: ) is based on rice with miso soup and other ...

was the third local speciality.

Minakuchi-juku in ''The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō''

Utagawa Hiroshige'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 ...

'' ''Hōeidō'' edition print of Minakuchi-juku dates from 1833 -1834. The print depicts a straggling row of thatch-roofed structures. In the foreground are two women (one with a baby on her back) hanging up strips of ''kanpyō'' to dry on lines, while a third woman with a knife is peeling more from a calabash. More strips of drying ''kanpyō'' are shown on the fences of the buildings in the background. A solitary traveller is walking away from the viewer on the road.

Neighboring post towns

; Tōkaidō :

Tsuchiyama-juku was the forty-ninth of the fifty-three stations of the Tōkaidō highway connecting Edo with Kyoto in Edo period Japan. It was located in the Tsuchiyama neighborhood of the present-day city of Kōka, Shiga Prefecture, Japan. History Tsuch ...

- Minakuchi-juku -

Ishibe-juku 260px, Reconstructed building based on Hiroshige's print was the fifty-first of the fifty-three stations of the Tōkaidō highway connecting Edo with Kyoto in Edo period Japan. It was located in the present-day city of Konan, Shiga Prefectur ...

References

* * *

External links

THE WOODBLOCK PRINTS OF UTAGAWA HIROSHIGE The Great TōkaidōShiga-Biwako Visitors Guide

Koka City home page

Notes

{{Tōkaidō Stations of the Tōkaidō Stations of the Tōkaidō in Shiga Prefecture Ōmi Province Kōka, Shiga