was the fifty-second 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 ...

connecting

Edo Edo ( ja, , , "bay-entrance" or "estuary"), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a ''jōkamachi'' (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the ''de facto'' capital of ...

with

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 ...

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...

Japan. It is located in former

Mino Province was a province of Japan in the area of Japan that is today southern Gifu Prefecture. Mino was bordered by Ōmi to the west, Echizen and Hida to the north, and Shinano to the east, and Ise, Mikawa, and Owari to the south. Its abbreviat ...

in what is now part of the city of

Kakamigahara is a city located in southern Gifu Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 148,225, and a population density of 1700 persons per km2, in 59,736 households. The total area of the city was . Situated in the northern part o ...

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 ...

.Unuma-juku Juunin Homepage
Unuma-juku Juunin. Accessed July 10, 2007.

History

Unuma was an important junction linking the routes that connected the provinces of Mino and Owari. It is of ancient origin, having been a stop on the old

Tōsandō is a Japanese geographical term. It means both an ancient division of the country and the main road running through it. It is part of the ''Gokishichidō'' system. It was situated along the central mountains of northern Honshu, specifically th ...

road, that predated the creation of the Nakasendō. It was also the last post station on the Inagi Kaidō, which was a side road connecting Inuyama with what is now central

Nagoya is the largest city in the Chūbu region, the fourth-most populous city and third most populous urban area in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020. Located on the Pacific coast in central Honshu, it is the capital and the most pop ...

. The eastern and western portions of the old post town joined together to become a formal post station in 1651. During the Edo period, it was part of the territory of the

Owari Domain The was a feudal domain of Japan in the Edo period. Located in what is now the western part of Aichi Prefecture, it encompassed parts of Owari, Mino, and Shinano provinces. Its headquarters were at Nagoya Castle. At its peak, it was rated at ...

, governed via

Inuyama Castle is a ''yamajiro''-style Japanese castle located in the city of Inuyama, Aichi Prefecture, Japan. The castle overlooks the Kiso River, which serves as the border between Aichi and Gifu Prefectures. The ''tenshu'' of Inuyama Castle, one of only 12 ...

, located on the opposite bank of the

Kiso River The is a river in the Chubu region of Japan roughly long, flowing through the prefectures of Nagano, Gifu, Aichi, and Mie before emptying into Ise Bay a short distance away from the city of Nagoya.Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric ''et al.'' (2005) ...

, about two kilometers south. Per the 1843 guidebook issued by the , the town had a population of 246 people in 68 houses, including 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 ''waki-honjin,'' and 25 ''

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 ...

''. Unuma-juku is 396.0 kilometers from

and approximately six kilometers from the preceding post town,

Ōta-juku was the fifty-first of the sixty-nine stations of the Nakasendō connecting Edo with Kyoto in Edo period Japan. It is located in former Mino Province in what is now part of the city of Minokamo, Gifu Prefecture, Japan.machiya are traditional wooden townhouses found throughout Japan and typified in the historical capital of Kyoto. (townhouses) and (farm dwellings) constitute the two categories of Japanese vernacular architecture known as (folk dwellings). orig ...

'', a ''

sake Sake, also spelled saké ( ; also referred to as Japanese rice wine), is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Despite the name ''Japanese rice wine'', sake, and indee ...

'' brewery and other structures, and (unusually for Japanese towns), the electrical and telephone wires were buried underground. Restoration work was completed in 2013 and the area is now a popular tourist destination. The old post town contains such historical treasures as Kuan-ji Temple, the ancient tomb of Ishozuka, and

haiku is a type of short form poetry originally from Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases that contain a ''kireji'', or "cutting word", 17 '' on'' (phonetic units similar to syllables) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern, and a ''kigo'', or se ...

-engraved monuments left by

Matsuo Bashō born then was the most famous poet of the Edo period in Japan. During his lifetime, Bashō was recognized for his works in the collaborative '' haikai no renga'' form; today, after centuries of commentary, he is recognized as the greatest ma ...

.Unuma-juku
You Yuu Tokai. Accessed July 10, 2007.

Unuma-juku in ''The Sixty-nine Stations of the Kiso Kaidō''

Utagawa 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 ...

's ''

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 of Unuma-juku dates from 1835 -1838. The print depicts a dramatic and rather stylized view of

from the Owari side of the Kiso River. Travelers are crossing a wooden bridge over a moat, towards a ferry landing. The post station itself is barely visible in the far distance across a wide river.

Gallery

Unumajuku machiyakan.JPG, restored ''machiya'' Unukajuku zenkei.JPG, View from Ninomiya Jinja 菊川酒造の蔵 - 2.jpg, Kikugawa sake brewery

Neighboring Post Towns

;Nakasendō :

Ōta-juku was the fifty-first of the sixty-nine stations of the Nakasendō connecting Edo with Kyoto in Edo period Japan. It is located in former Mino Province in what is now part of the city of Minokamo, Gifu Prefecture, Japan.Kanō-juku was the fifty-third of the was the fifty-eighth of the sixty-nine stations of the Nakasendō connecting Edo with Kyoto in Edo period Japan. It is located in former Mino Province in what is now part of the city of Gifu, Gifu Prefecture, Japan.

Shinkanō-juku was a mid-station along the Nakasendō in Edo period Japan. It was in between the post stations of Unuma-juku and Kanō-juku. It is located in the present-day town of Kakamigahara, Gifu Prefecture, Japan. Neighboring post towns ;Nakasendō :Unum ...

was an ''

ai no shuku {{nihongo, Ai no Shuku, 間の宿, mid-station were unofficial post stations along historical routes in Japan. These post stations formed organically along routes (such as the Tōkaidō and the Nakasendō) when the distance between two places w ...

'' located between Unuma-juku and Kanō-juku.) ;Inagi Kaidō :Unuma-juku - Inuyama-juku

References

* * * *

External links

Hiroshige Kiso-Kaido seriesUnuma-juku on Kiso Kaido RoadGifu Nakasendo Guide

Notes

{{Nakasendō Stations of the Nakasendō Post stations in Gifu Prefecture Kakamigahara, Gifu Mino Province