was the seventh of nine post stations along the

Minoji The was a highway in Japan during the Edo period. It was a secondary route, ranked below the Edo Five Routes in importance, and connected Miya-juku on the Tōkaidō with Tarui-juku on the Nakasendō.

. It is located in the present-day city of

Ōgaki Ōgaki Castle is a city located in Gifu, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 161,539, and a population density of 782 persons per km2 in 65,931 households. The total area of the city was . Ōgaki was the final destination for the h ...

Gifu Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Gifu Prefecture has a population of 1,991,390 () and has a geographic area of . Gifu Prefecture borders Toyama Prefecture to the north; Ishikawa Prefecture to the northwest, F ...

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 ...

. In addition to serving as a post station, it was also a

castle town A castle town is a settlement built adjacent to or surrounding a castle. Castle towns were common in Medieval Europe. Some examples include small towns like Alnwick and Arundel, which are still dominated by their castles. In Western Europe, ...

for

Sunomata Castle 250px, Tenshu is a Japanese castle in Ōgaki in Gifu Prefecture at the confluence of the Sai and Nagara rivers. It is also called the , due to the legend that it was built in one night. The castle was constructed by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, at the ...

. Sandwiched between the Nagara and Ibi rivers, it was an active post station.

History

The area flourished as a post station even before the establishment of the Minoji. During 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 ...

, the town was a stop on the

Kamakura Kaidō is the generic name of a great number of roads built during the Kamakura period which, from all directions, converged on the military capital of Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan.Nihon Rekishi Chimei Taikei The term itself however was created pr ...

, which connected

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 ...

with

Kamakura is a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Kamakura has an estimated population of 172,929 (1 September 2020) and a population density of 4,359 persons per km² over the total area of . Kamakura was designated as a city on 3 November 1939. Kamak ...

. Ruins of the ''

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 ...

'' and sub-''honjin'' can still be seen in the city.

Neighboring post towns

;Minoji :

Okoshi-juku was the sixth of nine shukuba, post stations along the Minoji. It is located in the present-day city of Ichinomiya, Aichi, Ichinomiya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan. Established on edge of the Kiso River, the post station was also on the border of Mino ...

- Sunomata-juku - Ōgaki-juku

References

{{coord missing, Gifu Prefecture Post stations in Gifu Prefecture