Ok…so what do we expect to see in Kaidōs and inn towns?

 What do we expect to see on Kaidos and in inn towns? 

I did mentioned a bit on my second blog. 

https://off-the-beaten-paths-japan.blogspot.com/2025/01/introducing-old-highway-networkkaido.html?m=1

Let me explain more about these. 

An inn town had 高札場(Kosatsuba: the information board), 本陣(Honjin: an officially-appointed inn, or today’s super-luxury hotel), 脇本陣(a secondary inn, or backup inn of Honjin), 旅籠(Hatago: equivalent to today’s business hotel), 木賃宿(equivalent to hostel or capsule hotel), 問屋場(Toiyaba: an administrative office which includes accommodation arrangements, postal service, cargo and logistic terminal, personnel service for local lords’ procession events). There are other establishments like restaurants, clinics, pine-tree-lined boulevard, forked roads etc. In some of important inn towns, there were 関所(sekisho: a checkpoint). 

A typical scenery of today’s inn town is like this, on the following picture. (Nakasendo Nakatsugawa inn town. Photos taken by this writer in May 2024)




The following picture is Tokaido Arimatsu unofficial inn town(間宿: Ainoshuku) in Midori-ward, Nagoya. Photos taken by this writer in May 2024. 





The primary reason for establishing the Edo Five Routes and beyond is that, during Edo Period(1603-1868), Tokugawa shogunate ordered and mandated all the local feudal lords to alternately attend and reside in the city of Edo(modern-day Tokyo) so that the central government continued to gain control over all the lords. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sankin-k%C5%8Dtai#:~:text=Sankin%252Dk%C5%8Dtai%2520(Japanese%253A%2520%E5%8F%82,It%2520required%2520most%2520daimyo%2520to

(Sankinkotai. Wikipedia. Accessed in 1/28/2025) 

There are a lot more to cover, but I think now we’ve got enough for the basics. I will eventually write another blog for further readings. Let’s begin to explore. 



Reference: 

東海道への誘いー宿場について　国土交通省関東地方整備局　横浜国道事務所： Invitation to Tokaido - About Inn Town. Yokohama Kokudo office, Kanto Regional Development Bureau, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.  https://www.ktr.mlit.go.jp/yokohama/tokaido/02_tokaido/04_qa/index2/a0201.htm (Accessed in 1/26/2025)



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