Old commercial merchant street of Hokkoku Road and Komoro City

The was a

highway A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It includes not just major roads, but also other public roads and rights of way. In the United States, it is also used as an equivalent term to controlled-access highway, or ...

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 ...

during the

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 ...

. 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 Buddhism, Buddhist temple located in the city of Nagano, Nagano, Nagano, Japan. The temple was built in the 7th century. It is one of the few remaining pilgrimage sites in Japan. The modern city of Nagano began as a town built around the ...

, 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 centrally administered Edo Five Routes, five routes of the Edo period, and one of the two that connected the ''de facto'' ...

's Oiwake-juku to the

Hokurikudō is a Japanese geographical term. It means both an ancient division of the country and the main road running through the old Japanese geographical region.Nussbaum, "''Hokurikudō''" in Both were situated along the northwestern edge of Honshū. ...

's Takada-shuku. Nowadays, the route is traced by Route 18, stretching between the town of Karuizawa 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 geography, geographical region of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. In a common definition, the region includes the Greater Tokyo Area and encompasses seven prefectures of Japan, prefectures: Chiba Prefecture, Chiba, Gunma Prefe ...

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, it ...

side of

Honshu , historically known as , is the largest of the four main islands of Japan. It lies between the Pacific Ocean (east) and the Sea of Japan (west). It is the list of islands by area, seventh-largest island in the world, and the list of islands by ...

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

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 ...

'' (regional ruler) from the

Hokuriku region The is located in the northwestern part of Honshu, the main island of Japan. It lies along the Sea of Japan and is part of the larger Chūbu region. It is almost equivalent to the former Koshi Province (Japan), Koshi Province and Hokurikudō are ...

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 country, landlocked Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Nagano Prefecture has a population of 2,007,682 () and has a geographic area of . Nagano Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture ...

:Starting Location: Oiwake-juku (追分宿) ( Karuizawa, 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 ''Cleyera japonica'' (sakaki) is a flowering evergreen tree native to warm areas of Japan, Taiwan, China, Myanmar, Nepal, and northern India (Min and Bartholomew 2015). It can reach a height of 10 m. The leaves are 6–10 cm long, smooth, ...

, 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) :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 Prefectures of Japan, prefecture in the Chūbu region of Honshu of Japan. Niigata Prefecture has a population of 2,131,009 (1 July 2023) and is the List of Japanese prefectures by area, fifth-largest prefecture of Japan by geographic area ...

: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 Edo-period roads and trails

Stations of the Hokkoku Kaidō

Nagano Prefecture is a Landlocked country, landlocked Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Nagano Prefecture has a population of 2,007,682 () and has a geographic area of . Nagano Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture ...

Niigata Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture in the Chūbu region of Honshu of Japan. Niigata Prefecture has a population of 2,131,009 (1 July 2023) and is the List of Japanese prefectures by area, fifth-largest prefecture of Japan by geographic area ...

See also

References