was the thirty-ninth of the fifty-three stations of the Tōkaidō. It is located in the present-day city of

Chiryū is a city in central Aichi Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 71,992 in 32,579 households, and a population density of 4,414 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Chiryū is situated in central Ai ...

in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. It was the westernmost

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 ...

Mikawa Province was an old province in the area that today forms the eastern half of Aichi Prefecture. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Mikawa''" in . Its abbreviated form name was . Mikawa bordered on Owari, Mino, Shinano, and Tōtōmi Provinces. M ...

, and was 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 curre ...

, the start of the Tōkaidō, so it took approximately 10 days to for average travellers to reach.

History

Chiryū-juku was noted for a famed

Shinto shrine A is a structure whose main purpose is to house ("enshrine") one or more '' kami'', the deities of the Shinto religion. Overview Structurally, a Shinto shrine typically comprises several buildings. The '' honden''Also called (本殿, mean ...

, the Chiryū Daimyōjin, and also for its flourishing horse market, held in late April to early May of each year.

Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, which ruled Japan from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was one of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga and fel ...

ordered that the post station plant

pine trees A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family (biology), family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanic ...

along through route of the highway before and after the town. 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 of such subjects as female beauties; kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers; scenes from history and folk ...

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 to 1834 depicts horses, and also one of the pine trees. Hiroshige entitled the work . Despite the construction of railroads following the

Meiji restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were r ...

the horse market continued into the

Shōwa period Shōwa may refer to: * Hirohito (1901–1989), the 124th Emperor of Japan, known posthumously as Emperor Shōwa * Showa Corporation, a Japanese suspension and shock manufacturer, affiliated with the Honda keiretsu Japanese eras * Jōwa (Heian ...

, and most of the pine trees survived until the 1959 Isewan Typhoon.

Neighboring post towns

;Tōkaidō :

Okazaki-shuku was the thirty-eighth of the fifty-three stations of the Tōkaidō. It is located in the present-day city of Okazaki, in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. History Okazaki-shuku was a part of the flourishing castle town surrounding Okazaki Castle, ...

- Chiryū-juku -

Narumi-juku was the fortieth of the 53 Stations of the Tōkaidō, fifty-three stations of the Tōkaidō (road), Tōkaidō. It is located in former Owari Province in what is now part of the Midori-ku, Nagoya, Midori-ku section of the city of Nagoya, Aichi, N ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chiryu-juku Stations of the Tōkaidō Stations of the Tōkaidō in Aichi Prefecture

History

Neighboring post towns

Further reading

References