The was a

highway A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It is used for major roads, but also includes other public roads and public tracks. In some areas of the United States, it is used as an equivalent term to controlled-access ...

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 n ...

during 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 character ...

. It was a secondary route, ranked below the

Edo Five Routes The , sometimes translated as "Five Highways", were the five centrally administered routes, or ''kaidō'', that connected the ''de facto'' capital of Japan at Edo (now Tokyo) with the outer provinces during the Edo period (1603–1868). The most ...

in importance. Because it was developed for travelers going to

Zenkō-ji is a Buddhist temple located in the city of Nagano, Japan. The temple was built in the 7th century. The modern city of Nagano began as a town built around the temple. Historically, Zenkō-ji is perhaps most famous for its involvement in the b ...

, it was also called ''Zenkō-ji Kaidō'' (善光寺街道). It stretched from 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 69 ...

's Oiwake-juku to the Hokurikudō's Takada-shuku. Nowadays, the route is traced by Route 18, stretching between the town of

Karuizawa is a resort town located in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 20,323 in 9897 households, and a population density of 130 persons per km². The total area of the town is . Karuizawa is one of the oldest and most ...

and the city of Jōetsu. Although it ranked below the five major routes, the Hokkoku Kaidō was an important link between the

Kantō region The is a geographical area of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. In a common definition, the region includes the Greater Tokyo Area and encompasses seven prefectures: Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Tokyo, Chiba and Kanagawa. Sl ...

and the

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, i ...

side of

Honshu , historically called , is the largest and most populous island of Japan. It is located south of Hokkaidō across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyūshū across the Kanmon Straits. The island s ...

. It carried marine products and gold from the mines on Sado. Daimyō from the

Hokuriku region The was located in the northwestern part of Honshu, the main island of Japan. It lay along the Sea of Japan within the Chūbu region, which it is currently a part of. It is almost equivalent to Koshi Province and Hokurikudō area in pre-mod ...

travelled it on their sankin kōtai journeys between their domains and Edo.

Stations of the Hokkoku Kaidō

Though there were 25 post stations along the Hokkoku Kaidō, some of the stations were .Aijuku: Two or more inns that operated alternately, in areas where there was not enough traffic to support a full-time station. Additionally, Nezumi-shuku and Shinonoi Oiwake-shuku were mid stations (, at which stayovers were not permitted, reducing the number where travellers could stay to 17. The stations are divided by present-day prefectures below, with the municipality in parentheses.Shinshū no Kaidō Hōmon: Hokkoku Kaidō
Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. Accessed August 18, 2007.

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 ...

:Starting Location: Oiwake-juku (追分宿) (

, Kitasaku District) :1. Komoro-shuku (小諸宿) ( Komoro) :2. Tanaka-juku (田中宿) and Unno-juku (海野宿) ( Tōmi) :3. Ueda-shuku (上田宿) ( Ueda) :*Nezumi-shuku (鼠宿) ( Sakaki, Hanashina District) :4. Sakaki-shuku (坂木宿) (Sakaki, Hanishina District) :5. Kami Kurashina-shuku (上戸倉宿) and Shimo Kurashina-juku (下戸倉宿) ( Chikuma) :6. Yashiro-shuku (屋代宿) (Chikuma) :*Shinonoi Oiwake-shuku (篠ノ井追分宿) ( Nagano) :7. Tanbajima-shuku (丹波島宿) (Nagano) :8. Zenkōji-shuku (善光寺宿) (Nagano) :9. Shinmachi-shuku (新町宿) (Nagano) :10. Mure-juku (牟礼宿) ( Iizuna,

Kamiminochi District is a district located in Nagano Prefecture, 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, w ...

) :11. Furuma-shuku (古間宿) and Kashiwabara-juku (柏原宿) ( Shinano, Kamiminochi District) :12. Nojiri-shuku (野尻宿) (Shinano, Kamiminochi District)

Niigata Prefecture is a prefecture in the Chūbu region of Honshu of Japan. Niigata Prefecture has a population of 2,227,496 (1 July 2019) and is the fifth-largest prefecture of Japan by geographic area at . Niigata Prefecture borders Toyama Prefecture and ...

:13. Sekigawa-shuku (関川宿) and Uehara-juku (上原宿) ( Myōkō) :14. Tagiri-shuku (田切宿) and Futamata-juku (二俣宿) (Myōkō) :15. Sekiyama-shuku (関山宿) (Myōkō) :16. Matsuzaki-shuku (松崎宿) and Nippongi-juku (二本木宿) ( Nakagō-ku, Jōetsu) :17. Arai-shuku (荒井宿) (Myōkō) :Ending Location: Takada-shuku (高田宿) ( Jōetsu)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hokkoku Kaido Road transport in Japan Edo period

Stations of the Hokkoku Kaidō

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 ...

Niigata Prefecture is a prefecture in the Chūbu region of Honshu of Japan. Niigata Prefecture has a population of 2,227,496 (1 July 2019) and is the fifth-largest prefecture of Japan by geographic area at . Niigata Prefecture borders Toyama Prefecture and ...

See also

References