The was one of the five routes or major

highways 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 ...

of 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 built to connect

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 ...

(modern-day

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

) with Kai Province in modern-day

Yamanashi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Yamanashi Prefecture has a population of 787,592 (1 February 2025) and has a geographic area of 4,465 km2 (1,724 sq mi). Yamanashi Prefecture borders Saitama Prefecture to the n ...

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 ...

. The route continues from there to connect with 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 Shimosuwa-shuku in

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 ...

.Information on Everyday Living for Foreign Residents of Shinjuku City
. Shinjuku City Office. Accessed November 28, 2007. Many feudal lords from

Shinano Province or is an old province of Japan that is now Nagano Prefecture. Shinano bordered Echigo, Etchū, Hida, Kai, Kōzuke, Mikawa, Mino, Musashi, Suruga, and Tōtōmi Provinces. The ancient capital was located near modern-day Matsumoto, whi ...

made use of the road during ''

sankin-kōtai ''Sankin-kōtai'' (, now commonly written as ) was a policy of the Tokugawa shogunate during most of the Edo period, created to control the daimyo, the feudal lords of Japan, politically, and to keep them from attempting to overthrow the regi ...

'', including those from the Takatō, Suwa and Iida domains. The Kōshū Kaidō's route is followed closely by the modern Route 20.

Stations of the Kōshū Kaidō

There are 44 post stations along the Kōshū Kaidō.Kōshū Kaidō Map
. Yumekaidō. Accessed September 4, 2007.
. NEC Corporation. Accessed August 4, 2007. They are listed below with they corresponding modern-day municipality listed in

parentheses A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. They come in four main pairs of shapes, as given in the box to the right, which also gives their n ...

Tokyo

:Starting Location:

Nihonbashi is a business district of Chūō, Tokyo, Japan, which sprung up around the bridge of the same name that 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 ...

( Chūō) :1. Naitō Shinjuku (内藤新宿) (

Shinjuku , officially called Shinjuku City, is a special ward of Tokyo, Japan. It is a major commercial and administrative center, housing the northern half of the busiest railway station in the world ( Shinjuku Station) as well as the Tokyo Metropol ...

) :2. Shimotakaido-shuku (下高井戸宿) (

Suginami is a Special wards of Tokyo, special ward in the Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolis in Japan. The ward refers to itself as Suginami City in English. As of June 1, 2022, Suginami has an estimated population of 588,354 and a population density of 17,274 pe ...

) :3. Kamitakaido-shuku (上高井戸宿) (Suginami) :4–8: Fuda-Goshuku（布田五宿）: These small posts are collectively referred to as Fuda-Goshuku. 'Goshuku' means five post-stations in Japanese. ::4. Kokuryō-shuku (国領宿) (

Chōfu is a Cities of Japan, city in the western side of Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 238,087, and a population density of 11,000 per km2. the total area of the city is . Geography Chōfu is approximately ...

) ::5. Shimofuda-shuku (下布田宿) (Chōfu) ::6. Kamifuda-shuku (上布田宿) (Chōfu) ::7. Shimoishihara-shuku (下石原宿) (Chōfu) ::8. Kamiishihara-shuku (上石原宿) (Chōfu) :9. Fuchū-shuku (府中宿) ( Fuchū) :10. Hino-shuku (日野宿) ( Hino) :11. Hachiōji-shuku (八王子宿) (

Hachiōji is a Cities of Japan, city located in the Western Tokyo, western portion of the Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 561,344, and a population density of 3,000 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . It is ...

) :12. Komagino-shuku (駒木野宿) (Hachiōji) :13. Kobotoke-shuku (小仏宿) (Hachiōji)

Kanagawa Prefecture

:14. Ohara-shuku (小原宿) ( Sagamihara) :15. Yose-shuku (与瀬宿) (Sagamihara) :16. Yoshino-shuku (吉野宿) (Sagamihara) :17. Sekino-shuku (関野宿) (Sagamihara)

Yamanashi Prefecture

:18. Uenohara-shuku (上野原宿) ( Uenohara) :19. Tsurukawa-shuku (鶴川宿) (Uenohara) :20. Notajiri-shuku (野田尻宿) (Uenohara) :21. Inume-shuku (犬目宿) (Uenohara) :22. Shimotorisawa-shuku (下鳥沢宿) ( Ōtsuki) :23. Kamitorisawa-shuku (上鳥沢宿) (Ōtsuki) :24. Saruhashi-shuku (猿橋宿) (Ōtsuki) :25. Komahashi-shuku (駒橋宿) (Ōtsuki) :26. Ōtsuki-shuku (大月宿) (Ōtsuki) :27. Shimohanasaki-shuku (下花咲宿) (Ōtsuki) :28. Kamihanasaki-shuku (上花咲宿) (Ōtsuki) :29. Shimohatsukari-shuku (下初狩宿) (Ōtsuki) :30. Nakahatsukari-shuku (中初狩宿) (Ōtsuki) :31. Shirano-shuku (白野宿) (Ōtsuki) :32. Kuronoda-shuku (黒野田宿) (Ōtsuki) :33. Komakai-shuku (駒飼宿) ( Kōshū) :34. Tsuruse-shuku (鶴瀬宿) (Kōshū) :35. Katsunuma-shuku (勝沼宿) (Kōshū) :36. Kuribara-shuku (栗原宿) ( Yamanashi) :37. Isawa-shuku (石和宿) ( Fuefuki) :38. Kōfu-shuku (甲府宿) (

Kōfu is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 187,985 in 90,924 households, and a population density of 880 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Overview Toponymy Kōfu ...

) :39. Nirasaki-shuku (韮崎宿) ( Nirasaki) :40. Daigahara-shuku (台ヶ原宿) ( Hokuto) :41. Kyōraiishi-shuku (教来石宿) (Hokuto)

Nagano Prefecture

:42. Tsutaki-shuku (蔦木宿) ( Fujimi, Suwa District) :43. Kanazawa-shuku (金沢宿) ( Chino) :44. Kamisuwa-shuku (上諏訪宿) ( Suwa) :Ending Location: Shimosuwa-shuku (

Shimosuwa is a town located in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 20,055 in 8864 households, and a population density of 300 persons per km2. The total area of the town is . Geography Shimosuwa is located in central Nagan ...

, Suwa District) (also part of the

)

References

External links

Information on the 44 Stations of the Kōshū Kaidō
{{DEFAULTSORT:Koshu Kaido Edo-period roads and trails