was the twenty-first 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 ...

. It is located in the present-day town of

Miyota is a town located in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 15,562 in 6897 households, and a population density of 260 persons per km². The total area of the town is . Geography Miyota is located on the eastern ...

, in the

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 ...

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

Otai-shuku originated between 473 and 492 AD and developed into a post town over one thousand years later, during the

Keichō was a after ''Bunroku'' and before ''Genna''. This period spanned from October 1596 to July 1615. The reigning emperors were and . Change of era * 1596 : The era name was changed to ''Keichō'' to mark the passing of various natural disasters ...

era.Nakasendo: Otai-shuku
Shunji Mori. Accessed August 14, 2007. Because Otai-shuku was small there were only five rest areas in the entire post town, ''

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 ...

s'' tended to stay at the neighboring

Oiwake-shuku was the twentieth of the sixty-nine stations of the Nakasendō. It is located in the present-day town of Karuizawa, in the Kitasaku District of Nagano Prefecture, Japan. History This post town was named ''Oiwake'', which means "where two roa ...

, which was much larger.Nakasendō: Shinshū Miyota
Miyota-machi Tourist Association. Accessed August 30, 2007. The Otai-shuku Festival was established to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the founding of the post town; this festival takes place on August 16 of each year.
Miyota-machi Tourist Association. Accessed August 14, 2007.

Neighboring post towns

;Nakasendō :

- Otai-shuku -

Iwamurada-shuku was the twenty-second of the sixty-nine stations of the Nakasendō. It is located in the present-day city of Saku, in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. History Originally, Iwamurada-shuku was a castle town for the Iwamurada '' Han'' and, as a post town, ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Otai-shuku Stations of the Nakasendō Stations of the Nakasendo in Nagano Prefecture