was the thirty-fourth 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 ...

, as well as the second of eleven stations along 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 ...

.Narai-jyuku
Narai-juku. Accessed September 25, 2007. It is located in the present-day city of Shiojiri,

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 ...

History

Narai-juku had the highest elevation of all the spots along the Kisoji. Because of all the visitors going through the Torii Pass (鳥居峠 ''Torii Tōge''), Narai flourished as a post town and was referred to as the "Narai of 1,000 buildings" (奈良井千軒 ''Narai senken'').Kisoji Shukuba-machi Series: Narai-juku
. Higashi Nihon Denshin Denwa. Accessed July 24, 2007. It has since become one of Japan's Nationally Designated Architectural Preservation Sites, so the buildings have been kept much like they originally were in 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 ...

Historical recognition

Narai-juku is an Important Preservation District for Groups of Historic Buildings, and as it retains a historical row of Edo period houses along the street, it was confirmed as a Cultural Asset in the

Groups of Traditional Buildings is a Japanese category of historic preservation introduced by a 1975 amendment of the law which mandates the protection of groups of traditional buildings which, together with their environment, form a beautiful scene. They can be post towns, castl ...

category of

Cultural Properties of Japan A is administered by the Government of Japan, Japanese government's Agency for Cultural Affairs (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology), and includes Tangible Cultural Properties of Japan, tangible properties (structures ...

in 1978 and is maintained by the Japanese government grant system. The preservation area comprises an area of approximately 1km from north to south and 200m east to west along the boundary of the old Nakasendō route.Narai-juku: Experience Traditional Japan Along The Nakasendo
Accessed October 24, 2012.

Gallery

Neighboring post towns

;Nakasendō & Kisoji :

Niekawa-juku was the thirty-third of the sixty-nine stations of the Nakasendō. It is located in the present-day city of Shiojiri, Nagano Prefecture, Japan. History Niekawa was originally written as 熱川 (''niekawa'', "warm river") because there were onse ...

- Narai-juku -

Yabuhara-juku was the thirty-fifth of the sixty-nine stations of the Nakasendō, as well as the third of eleven stations on the Kisoji. It is located in the present-day village of Kiso, in the Kiso District of Nagano Prefecture, Japan. Yabuhara-juku is located ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Narai-Juku Stations of the Nakasendō Stations of the Nakasendo in Nagano Prefecture