The is a

mountain pass A mountain pass is a navigable route through a mountain range or over a ridge. Since many of the world's mountain ranges have presented formidable barriers to travel, passes have played a key role in trade, war, and both Human migration, human a ...

that lies between

Nagano Nagano may refer to: Places * Nagano Prefecture, a prefecture in Japan ** Nagano (city), the capital city of the same prefecture *** Nagano 1998, the 1998 Winter Olympics *** Nagano Olympic Stadium, a baseball stadium in Nagano *** Nagano Universi ...

and

Gunma prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Gunma Prefecture has a population of 1,937,626 (1 October 2019) and has a geographic area of 6,362 km2 (2,456 sq mi). Gunma Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture and Fukushima ...

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 ...

. It has served as one of the major transportation routes in central Japan since at least the eighth century.

Road

The pass on the ancient

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 ...

highway was described as early as the 8th century, in the '' Nihon Shoki,'' as

Yamato Takeru , originally , was a Japanese semi-legendary prince of the Yamato dynasty, son of Emperor Keikō, who is traditionally counted as the 12th Emperor of Japan. His name written in kanji can vary, in the '' Nihon Shoki'' it is spelled 日本武尊 ...

went through the pass during his journey in eastern Japan. Later, 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 ...

, one of the five routes of the

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 ...

maintained by the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia ...

(and one of the two that connected Edo, modern-day

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

, to

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 ...

) followed the route through the pass. The modern National Route 18, which goes through the pass, serves as a major link between the popular

tourist Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism mo ...

spot Karuizawa and the

Kantō plain The is the largest plain in Japan, and is located in the Kantō region of central Honshū. The total area of 17,000 km2 covers more than half of the region extending over Tokyo, Saitama Prefecture, Kanagawa Prefecture, Chiba Prefecture, ...

(including

). A bypass and an

expressway Expressway may refer to: * Controlled-access highway, the highest-grade type of highway with access ramps, lane markings, etc., for high-speed traffic. * Limited-access road, a lower grade of highway or arterial road. *Expressway, the fictional s ...

now make the trip faster and safer. The original road still exists as of 2013. The Usui Pass is the home course of drift racer

Keiichi Tsuchiya is a Japanese professional race car driver. He is known as the for his nontraditional use of drifting in non-drifting racing events and his role in popularizing drifting as a motorsport. In professional racing, he is a two-time 24 Hours of Le ...

. It was also featured in the racing manga '' Initial D'' as the home course of the team Impact Blue where the protagonist, Takumi Fujiwara races a SilEighty driven by Mako Sato.

Railway

The

Shin'etsu Main Line The Shinetsu Main Line ( ja, 信越本線, ) is a railway line, consisting of three geographically separated sections, operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East) in Japan. It was originally one continuous line connecting and via . ...

railway went through the pass between 1893 and 1997. The 11.2 km pass segment, between

Yokokawa Station is a railway station in the city of Annaka, Gunma, Japan, operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East). Lines Yokokawa Station is a terminal station for its segment of the Shinetsu Main Line, and is located 29.7 kilometers from the sta ...

on the Gunma side and

Karuizawa Station is a railway station in the town of Karuizawa, Nagano, Japan, operated jointly by the JR Group company East Japan Railway Company (JR East) and the third-sector railway operator Shinano Railway. Lines Karuizawa Station is served by the JR ...

on the Nagano side, had been operated with the rack-and-pinion railway system until 1963 when the line was rebuilt and new locomotives for non-rack operation were introduced. The new locomotives were the JNR Class EF63 banking engines used for help in both ascending and descending the 6.7% (1 in 15) gradient line. In 1997, the segment was closed due to opening of the new

Nagano Shinkansen The is a high-speed Shinkansen railway line jointly operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East) and West Japan Railway Company (JR West), connecting Tokyo with in the Hokuriku region of Japan. The first section, between and in Nagano ...

line that detours the pass with a long tunnel. A museum now stands on the site of the old locomotive shed at Yokokawa. A link to archival footage of the rack railway operation i
available here
The prior-1963 line was featured in the

Rail Wars! is a Japanese light novel series written by Takumi Toyoda with illustrations by Vania 600. 13 volumes have been published by Sohgeisha under their Sohgeisha Clear Bunko imprint; the series moved to Jitsugyo no Nihon Sha starting with the ...

episodes 8 and 9, where the characters take it with a

Draisine A draisine () is a light auxiliary rail vehicle, driven by service personnel, equipped to transport crew and material necessary for the maintenance of railway infrastructure. The eponymous term is derived from the German inventor Baron Karl ...

References

{{Authority control Mountain passes of Japan Shin'etsu Main Line Railway lines opened in 1893 Railway lines closed in 1997