was the thirty-third 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'' ...

. It is located in the present-day city of Shiojiri,

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 ...

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 ...

History

Niekawa was originally written as 熱川 (''niekawa'', "warm river") because there were

onsen In Japan, are hot springs and the bathing facilities and Ryokan (inn), traditional inns around them. There are approximately 25,000 hot spring sources throughout Japan, and approximately 3,000 ''onsen'' establishments use naturally hot water ...

in the area, which made the river warm. However, the

kanji are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are ...

were eventually changed to the ones used today. Originally built in the Tenbun period (1532-1555), it was the first of 11 resting spots along the

Kisoji The was an old trade route in the Kiso Valley that stretched from Niekawa-juku in Nagano Prefecture to Magome-juku in Gifu Prefecture. The route featured eleven post towns, all of which were later incorporated into the Nakasendō when it was esta ...

(木曽路),Kisoji Shukuba-machi Series: Niekawa-juku
. Higashi Nihon Denshin Denwa. Accessed July 24, 2007. which stretched to modern-day

Nakatsugawa Magome-juku on the Nakasendō is a city located in Gifu, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 78,930, and a population density of 120 persons per km2 in 30,788 households. The total area of the city was . Geography Nakatsugawa is in ...

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 ...

. It also marked the dividing point between the lands of Owari Han and Matsumoto han. It became part of the Nakasendō 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 ...

Neighboring post towns

;Nakasendō :

Motoyama-juku was the thirty-second of the sixty-nine stations of the Nakasendō. It is located in the central part of the present-day city of Shiojiri, Nagano Prefecture, Japan. History Motoyama became a post town in 1614, when the Nakasendō's route was c ...

- Niekawa-juku -

Narai-juku was the thirty-fourth of the sixty-nine stations of the Nakasendō, as well as the second of eleven stations along the Kisoji.Narai- ...

;Kisoji :Niekawa-juku ''(starting location)'' -

Narai-juku was the thirty-fourth of the sixty-nine stations of the Nakasendō, as well as the second of eleven stations along the Kisoji.Narai- ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Niekawa-Juku Stations of the Nakasendō Stations of the Nakasendo in Nagano Prefecture