Follow the Tokaido route through Aichi, and trace the steps of the samurai, merchants, pilgrims and townsfolk who traversed the Tokaido highway linking the Shogun’s city of Edo (Tokyo) and the Capital, Kyoto.
Step back in time and see one of the very few remaining Honjin, lodgings designated solely for high ranking samurai on their regular travels to and from Edo (Tokyo) to attend court. See the style the daimyo lords were accustomed to, at the 33rd stop along the old Tokaido Highway.
A popular post town in its day,the 36th Tokaido post town Akasaka boasts one of the last remaining operating inns, the Ohashiya, opened in 1649. Goyu-Juku retains the last of an avenue of pine trees planted to provide shelter for the travelers of the day, and a museum dedicated to the old route.
Located just outside of Okazaki, Fujikawa-Shuku was one of the busier post towns. See the Fujikawa-Shuku archives in the preserved Waki-Honjin inn for samurai and nobles, the line of old pine trees and traditional houses lining the route.
As the 39th of 53 stations along the Tokaido,Chiryu was 330 Km, or 10 days from Edo (Tokyo) and famed for the Chiryu Daimyojin Shrine and for its flourishing annual horse market.
One of the best preserved, traditional street views of the Tokaido, stop number 40 is Narumi-Juku, also known as Arimatsu, the famed tie-dying textiles production district in the southern suburbs of Nagoya.
The busiest of all stops on the Tokaido was Miya-Juku, just below the great Atsuta Shrine, and an intersection point of the Tokaido and other routes. It had the most hatago inns for travelers,2 honjin inns for lords, and 1 waki-honjin for lesser ranked nobility. Miya-Juku was the ferry stop to the next station, Kuwana.
