Seki-juku (Tōkaidō)

was the forty-seventh of the fifty-three stations of the Tōkaidō connecting Edo with Kyoto in Edo period Japan. It was located in former Ise Province in what is now the Seki neighborhood of the city of Kameyama, Mie Prefecture, Japan.Mie Tourism Guide: Ancient Tokaido Seki-juku
Mie Prefecture. Accessed November 29, 2007.

History

Seki-juku is located on the main route from Kyoto to the Ise Grand Shrine, and was always a major intersection for travel, with the , a highway for pilgrims to the Ise Grand Shrines and the , a highway for travelers to Yamato Province, intersecting here with the Tōkaidō highway. Although the theory that Seki-juku was the location of the ancient Suzuka Barrier, an administrative checkpoint on the highway controlling access to the capital from the eastern provinces, is no longer valid, the Suzuka Barrier was located nearby. From the Kamakura period, traffic on the road between Kyoto and Kamakura increased, not only for samurai, but also for merchants and priests. In the early Edo period, the system of post stations on the Tōkaidō was formalized by the Tokugawa shogunate in 1601, Seki-juku became an official post station It was on the ''sankin-kōtai'' route by many western ''daimyō'' to-and-from the Shogun's court in Edo. Sakashita-juku & Suzuka Pass Area
Kameyama City Tourism Association. Accessed January 13, 2007.

Per the 1843 guidebook issued by the , the town had 632 houses, including two ''honjin'', two ''wakihonjin'', and 42 ''hatago''. It had one ''Tonyaba'', for the stabling of packhorses and warehousing of goods, and one ''kōsatsu'' for the display of official notifications. It was 416.9 kilometers from Edo.

Following the Meiji Restoration, Seki-juku became the nucleus for the modern town of Seki, which became part of the city of Kameyama in 2005. Many of the historical buildings have been preserved and the area has been designated as Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings.

Gallery

2016-08-05 Tokaido Seki Juku Kameyama City Mie,東海道五十三次 関宿 DSCF6954☆彡.jpg, Seki-juku
2016-08-05 Tokaido Seki Juku Kameyama City Mie,東海道五十三次 関宿 DSCF6799.jpg, Historic Preservation Area of Seki-juku
2016-08-05 Tokaido Seki Juku Kameyama City Mie,東海道五十三次 関宿 DSCF6860.jpg, Aizu-ya shop in Seki-juku
2016-08-05 Jizo-do,Tokaido Seki Juku Kameyama City Mie,東海道五十三次 関宿 地蔵堂 DSCF6862.jpg, Jizo-in temple in Seki-juku

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

Utagawa Hiroshige's ''ukiyo-e'' ''Hōeidō'' edition print of Seki-juku dates from 1833 -1834. The print depicts the early morning preparations for departure of a ''daimyō'' procession on ''sankin-kōtai'' from one of the ''honjin''. A number of lower-ranking retainers with long spears are tying their travel hats and sandals, while in the background, a number of higher ranking samurai with their two swords are waiting by the entrance for other members of the party to appear. The sky is still dark, and a number of ''chōchin'' travel lanterns are in evidence.

Neighboring post towns

;Tōkaidō
: Kameyama-juku - Seki-juku - Sakashita-juku

See also

*Groups of Traditional Buildings

References

Further reading

*
*
*
*Carey, Patrick. ''Rediscovering the Old Tokaido:In the Footsteps of Hiroshige''. Global Books UK (2000).
*Chiba, Reiko. ''Hiroshige's Tokaido in Prints and Poetry''. Tuttle. (1982)
*Taganau, Jilly. ''The Tokaido Road: Travelling and Representation in Edo and Meiji Japan''. RoutledgeCurzon (2004).

External links

THE WOODBLOCK PRINTS OF UTAGAWA HIROSHIGE The Great TōkaidōKameyama City home page

{{DEFAULTSORT:Seki-Juku (Tokaido)
Stations of the Tōkaidō
Stations of the Tōkaidō in Mie Prefecture
Ise Province
Kameyama, Mie