was the twenty-ninth 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 being the ending location of the

Kōshū Kaidō The was one of the five routes of the Edo period. It was built to connect Edo (modern-day Tokyo) with Kai Province in modern-day Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan. The route continues from there to connect with the Nakasendō's Shimosuwa-shuku in Na ...

. It is located in the present-day town of

Shimosuwa is a Towns of Japan, town located in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 20,055 in 8864 households, and a population density of 300 persons per km². The total area of the town is . Geography Shimosuwa is located ...

, Suwa District,

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

First built around 1601, Shimosawa-shuku flourished as a post town because it was located between two difficult mountain passes, Wada Pass and Shiojiri Pass. The town's

onsen In Japan, are the country's hot springs and the bathing facilities and traditional inns around them. As a volcanically active country, Japan has many onsens scattered throughout all of its major islands. There are approximately 25,000 hot ...

s made it a heavily used rest area.Shimosuwa-shuku Aruki-net
. Shimosuwa Chamber of Commerce. Accessed July 16, 2007. It also served as the entrance to the

Suwa Taisha , historically also known as Suwa Shrine (諏訪神社 ''Suwa-jinja'') or , is a group of Shinto shrines in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. The shrine complex is the ''ichinomiya'' of former Shinano Province and is considered to be one of the oldest sh ...

. Records show that in 1843, Shimosuwa-juku had 1,345 residents and 315 buildings. Among the building, there was 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 sub-''honjin'', and 40 ''

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 ...

''.

Neighboring post towns

;Nakasendō :

Wada-shuku Hiroshige's print of Wada-shuku, part of the series '' The_Sixty-nine_Stations_of_the_Kiso_Kaidō">Hiroshige's_print_of_Wada-shuku,_part_of_the_series_''The_Sixty-nine_Stations_of_the_Kiso_Kaidō'' _was_the_twenty-eighth_of_the_69_Stations_of_the_ ...

- Shimosuwa-shuku -

Shiojiri-shuku was the thirtieth of the sixty-nine stations of the Nakasendō. It is located in the central part of the present-day city of Shiojiri, Nagano Prefecture, Japan. History This area was originally built by Ōkubo Nagayasu in the Keichō era of the ...

;Kōshū Kaidō :Kamisuwa-shuku - Shimosuwa-shuku ''(ending location)''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shimosuwa-Shuku Stations of the Nakasendō Stations of the Nakasendo in Nagano Prefecture