270px, Monument marking the site of the ''honjin'' of Fushimi-juku was the fiftieth 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 centrally administered Edo Five Routes, five routes of the Edo period, and one of the two that connected the ''de facto'' ...

connecting

Edo Edo (), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the '' de facto'' capital of Japan from 1603 as the seat of the Tokugawa shogu ...

with

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

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, Shinano to the east, and Ise, Mikawa, and Owari to the south. Its abbreviated fo ...

in what is now part of the town of Mitake, Kani District,

Gifu Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Gifu Prefecture has a population of 1,910,511 () and has a geographic area of . Gifu Prefecture borders Toyama Prefecture to the north; Ishikawa Prefecture ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

Nakasendo Fushimi-juku
. Ibisoku Co., Ltd. Accessed July 11, 2007.

History

In the early

, the system of post stations on the Nakasendō was formalized by the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...

in 1602; however, Fushimi-juku was to established until 92 years later when changes in the flow of the Kiso River shifted the location where ferries could cross further upstream. The original settlement of was abandoned and Fushimi-juku built to replace it. It originally prospered as the place where payments of land tax in the form of rice were loaded onto barges and shipped down to the coast towards

Nagoya is the largest city in the Chūbu region of Japan. It is the list of cities in Japan, fourth-most populous city in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020, and the principal city of the Chūkyō metropolitan area, which is the List of ...

. Fushimi was also the starting point of another side road named the Uwa-Kaidō which linked the Nakasendō and the Tōkaidō at Nagoya. However, due to its proximity to nearby post towns, such as Mitake-juku and

Ōta-juku was the fifty-first of the 69 Stations of the Nakasendō, 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, Minokamo, Gi ...

, the post station remained relatively small. Per the 1843 guidebook issued by the , the town had a population of 485 people in 82 houses, including one ''

honjin image:Ohara-juku01s3200.jpg, The ''honjin'' at Inaba Kaidō's Ōhara-shuku. is the Japanese word for an inn for government officials, generally located in post stations (''shukuba'') during the later part of the Edo period. Evolution of ''Honjin ...

'', one ''waki-honjin,'' and 29 ''

hatago were Edo period lodgings for travelers at ''shukuba'' (post stations) along the national highways, including the Edo Five Routes and the subroutes. In addition to a place to rest, ''hatago'' also offered meals and other foods to the travelers. ...

''. Fushimi-juku was 380.3 kilometers from Edo. Today, there is nothing remaining of Fushimi-juku except for a couple of commemorative monuments. The ''honjin'' was destroyed in a fire in 1848 and never rebuilt. Construction of modern

Japan National Route 1 is a major highway on the island of Honshū in Japan. It connects Chūō, Tokyo in the Kantō region with the city of Osaka, Osaka Prefecture in the Kansai region, passing through the Chūbu region en route. It follows the old Tōkaidō we ...

through the old post town meant that any old buildings surviving were demolished.

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

Utagawa Hiroshige or , 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 landscape series '' The Fifty-three Stations ...

's ''

ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art that flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock printing, woodblock prints and Nikuhitsu-ga, paintings of such subjects as female beauties; kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers; scenes ...

'' print of Fushimi-juku dates from 1835 -1838. The print's composition is centered on a very large

cypress tree Cypress is a common name for various coniferous trees or shrubs from the ''Cupressus'' genus of the '' Cupressaceae'' family, typically found in temperate climates and subtropical regions of Asia, Europe, and North America. The word ''cypress'' ...

, under which a group of pilgrims are resting and taking a meal. In front are two samurai with long spears, possibly the forerunners of a ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and no ...

'' procession, one of who is adjusting his sandal. To the left approaches a doctor, with a parasol, with a single sword and red ''

furoshiki are traditional Japanese wrapping cloths traditionally used to wrap and/or to transport goods. Consideration is placed on the aesthetics of , which may feature hemmed edges, thicker and more expensive materials, and hand-painted designs; ho ...

'' with medical supplies indicating his profession and status. To the right is a party of three blind female musicians, bearing ''

shamisen The , also known as or (all meaning "three strings"), is a three-stringed traditional Japanese musical instrument derived from the Chinese instrument . It is played with a plectrum called a bachi. The Japanese pronunciation is usually b ...

'', who appear to be making for the post station, which is show in the very far left distance.

Neighboring Post Towns

;Nakasendō : Mitake-juku - Fushimi-juku -

;Uwa Kaidō (connects the Nakasendō with

Nagoya Castle is a Japanese castle located in Nagoya, Japan. Nagoya Castle was constructed by the Owari Domain in 1612 during the Edo period on the site of an earlier castle of the Oda clan in the Sengoku period. Nagoya Castle was the heart of one of the ...

) :Fushimi-juku ''(starting location)'' - Dota-juku (土田宿)

Notes

References

* * * *

External links

Hiroshige Kiso-Kaido seriesFushimi-juku on Kiso Kaido RoadGifu Nakasendo Guide
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fushimi-juku (Nakasendo) Stations of the Nakasendō Post stations in Gifu Prefecture Mitake, Gifu Mino Province