was the forty-third 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 connecting Edo 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 was located in former

Ise Province was a province of Japan in the area of Japan that is today includes most of modern Mie Prefecture. Ise bordered on Iga, Kii, Mino, Ōmi, Owari, Shima, and Yamato Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was . History The name of Ise appears i ...

in what is now part of the city of

Yokkaichi is a city located in Mie Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 310,259 in 142162 households and a population density of 1500 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Yokkaichi is located in north-central ...

Mie Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Mie Prefecture has a population of 1,781,948 () and has a geographic area of . Mie Prefecture is bordered by Gifu Prefecture to the north, Shiga Prefecture and Kyoto Prefecture to ...

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

Yokkaichi-juku was a post town located on the intersection between the Tōkaidō and the Ise Sangū Kaidō, one of the main highways for pilgrims to the

Ise Grand Shrine The , located in Ise, Mie Prefecture of Japan, is a Shinto shrine dedicated to the sun goddess Amaterasu. Officially known simply as , Ise Jingū is a shrine complex composed of many Shinto shrines centered on two main shrines, and . The Inn ...

s, and developed as a market town from 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 ...

, noted for holding a market on the days ending in "four" of each month. The earliest recorded market was in 1470. Under 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 ...

, Yokkaichi was ''

tenryō 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 ...

'' territory under direct control of the Shōgun, and administered by a ''

daikan ''Daikan'' (代官) was an official in Japan that acted on behalf of a ruling monarch or a lord at the post they had been appointed to. Since the Middle Ages, ''daikan'' were in charge of their territory and territorial tax collection. In the Edo ...

'' based at the town. It was also possible for travelers to take a ferry from here to

Miya-juku was the forty-first of the fifty-three stations of the Tōkaidō. It is located in former Owari Province in what is now part of the Atsuta-ku section of the city of Nagoya, in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. It was six km from Narumi-juku, the ...

, thus bypassing

Kuwana-juku 280px, Map showing the routes between Kuwana-juku and Miya-juku 280px, Shichiri no watashi torii was the forty-second of the fifty-three stations (''shukuba'') of the Tōkaidō connecting Edo with Kyoto in Edo period Japan. It was located i ...

. Per the 1843 guidebook issued by the , the town had a population of 7114 in 1811 houses, including two ''

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 ''wakihonjin'', and 98 ''

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 ...

''. It had one ''Tonyaba'', for the stabling of packhorses and warehousing of goods, and one ''

kōsatsu The Kōsatsu (, literally "High plaque"), also called Seisatu (, literally "Controlling plaque"), was the public notice of the Han system, han-lord's or shogun's proclamations in the Japanese history. They were the local or nationwide laws written ...

'' for the display of official notifications. A local product of Yokkaichi-juku favored by traveller was , an elongated rice cape containing a paste made from sweet red beans, which had been roasted over charcoal. The name was play on words, indicating that the confectionery "kept for a long time" and also "kept one fun for a long time". Yokkaichi-juku was 12.8 km from

, the preceding

post town A post town is a required part of all postal addresses in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and a basic unit of the postal delivery system.Royal Mail, ''Address Management Guide'', (2004) Including the correct post town in the address increases ...

and 389.6 kilometers from Edo.

Yokkaichi-juku in ''The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō''

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 ...

'' ''Hōeidō'' edition print of Yokkaichi-juku dates from 1833 -1834. The print illustrates a windy day with a man racing after his hat, which has been blown away by the wind and another man crosses a small bridge over the Sanju River, depicted here as a small stream. The post town is depicted as a small collection of huts in the middle of a marsh, almost hidden by the reeds.

Neighboring Post Towns

;Tōkaidō :

- Yokkaichi-juku -

Ishiyakushi-juku was the forty-fourth of the 53 Stations of the Tōkaidō, fifty-three stations (''shukuba'') of the Tōkaidō (road), Tōkaidō connecting Edo with Kyoto in Edo period Japan. It was located in former Ise Province in what is now part of the city ...

External links

THE WOODBLOCK PRINTS OF UTAGAWA HIROSHIGE The Great TōkaidōCity home page
{{Tōkaidō Stations of the Tōkaidō Stations of the Tōkaidō in Mie Prefecture Ise Province Yokkaichi

History

Yokkaichi-juku in ''The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō''

Neighboring Post Towns

Further reading

External links