was the fifth of the fifty-three stations (''

shukuba were post stations during the Edo period in Japan, generally located on one of the Edo Five Routes or one of its sub-routes. They were also called ''shuku-eki'' (宿駅). These post stations (or "post towns") were places where travelers could r ...

'') of the Tōkaidō. It was the easternmost post station in

Sagami Province was a province of Japan located in what is today the central and western Kanagawa Prefecture. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Kanagawa''" at . Sagami Province bordered the provinces of Izu, Musashi, and Suruga. It had access to the Paci ...

. It is now located in Totsuka-ku in the present-day city of

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of To ...

Kanagawa Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-densest at . Its geographic area of makes it fifth-smallest. Kana ...

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

Because Totsuka-juku was approximately one

day's journey A day's journey in pre-modern literature, including the Bible, ancient geographers and ethnographers such as Herodotus, is a measurement of distance. In the Bible, it is not as precisely defined as other Biblical measurements of distance; the dis ...

from

Nihonbashi is a business district of Chūō, Tokyo, Japan which grew up around the bridge of the same name which has linked two sides of the Nihonbashi River at this site since the 17th century. The first wooden bridge was completed in 1603. The current ...

, it was a very common resting place for travelers at the start of the journey and the largest post station after

Odawara-juku was the ninth of the fifty-three stations of the Tōkaidō. It is located in the present-day city of Odawara, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. It was the first post station in a castle town that travelers came to when they exited Edo (modern-day To ...

.Tōkaidō to Totsuka-juku
Yokohama City Hall. Accessed December 10, 2007. Because of its size, there were two ''honjin'' in the post station as well, one belonging to the Sawabe family (澤辺) and the other belonging to the Uchida family (内田). Another reason for Totsuka-juku being so large was that it was also the intersection of

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 ...

and the Atsugi Kaidō. A distance marker can now be found in both Shinano-chō and Totsuka-chō. During the

Bakumatsu period was the final years of the Edo period when the Tokugawa shogunate ended. Between 1853 and 1867, Japan ended its isolationist foreign policy known as and changed from a feudal Tokugawa shogunate to the modern empire of the Meiji govern ...

, when Commodore

Matthew C. Perry Matthew Calbraith Perry (April 10, 1794 – March 4, 1858) was a commodore of the United States Navy who commanded ships in several wars, including the War of 1812 and the Mexican–American War (1846–1848). He played a leading role in the op ...

arrived in

Uraga Harbor is a subdivision of the city of Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. It is located on the south eastern side of the Miura Peninsula, at the northern end of the Uraga Channel, at the entrance of Tokyo Bay. History With the establishment of the T ...

with his

Black Ships The Black Ships (in ja, 黒船, translit=kurofune, Edo period term) was the name given to Western vessels arriving in Japan in the 16th and 19th centuries. In 1543 Portuguese initiated the first contacts, establishing a trade route linking G ...

, many frightened citizens fled to Totsuka-juku. The classic

ukiyo-e Ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art which flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surfac ...

print by

Andō Hiroshige Utagawa Hiroshige (, also ; ja, 歌川広重 ), born Andō Tokutarō (; 1797 – 12 October 1858), was a Japanese ''ukiyo-e'' artist, considered the last great master of that tradition. Hiroshige is best known for his horizontal-format l ...

(Hōeidō edition) from 1831–1834 depicts a traveler (one dismounting from a horse), entering into a tea-house. In the background, a wooden bridge leads across a stream to what appears to be a sizeable settlement.

Senryū

There was a ''

senryū is a Japanese form of short poetry similar to haiku in construction: three lines with 17 (or , often translated as syllables, but see the article on for distinctions). tend to be about human foibles while haiku tend to be about nature, and a ...

'' named after Tostuka-juku: :佐野の馬戸塚の坂で二度転び :''Sano no uma / Totsuka no saka de / nido korobi.'' :The horse of Sano / at the hill of Totsuka's / goes around it twice. This ''senryū'' is a

parody A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its subj ...

of a story called ''Hachi no Ki'' and references to the geography surrounding Totsuka-juku.

Neighboring post towns

;Tōkaidō :

Hodogaya-juku was the fourth of the fifty-three stations of the Tōkaidō. It is located in Hodogaya-ku in the present-day city of Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Occasionally, it is also written as . History Hodogaya-juku was established in 1601, an ...

- Totsuka-juku -

Fujisawa-shuku was the sixth of the fifty-three stations of the Tōkaidō. It is located in the present-day city of Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. History Fujisawa-shuku was established as a post station on the Tōkaidō in 1601, but did not become ...

History

Senryū

Neighboring post towns

References

Further reading