260px, modern Tarui-juku was the fifty-seventh 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'' ...

connecting

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 ...

with

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

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 ...

Japan. It is located in former

Mino Province was a province of Japan in the area of Japan that is today southern Gifu Prefecture. Mino was bordered by Ōmi to the west, Echizen and Hida to the north, Shinano to the east, and Ise, Mikawa, and Owari to the south. Its abbreviated fo ...

in what is now part of the town of Tarui, Fuwa District,

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 ...

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 ...

.Tarui-juku
/ref>

History

Tarui-juku is one of the oldest settlements on the Nakasendō. It is mentioned in 12th century accounts, but is probably much older, as it grew up around the ''

ichinomiya is a Japanese language, Japanese historical term referring to the Shinto shrines with the highest rank in a Provinces of Japan, province. Shrines of lower rank were designated , , , and so forth.''Encyclopedia of Shinto'' ''Ichi no miya'' retr ...

'' of Mino Province (the Nangū Taisha and the

Nara period The of the history of Japan covers the years from 710 to 794. Empress Genmei established the capital of Heijō-kyō (present-day Nara). Except for a five-year period (740–745), when the capital was briefly moved again, it remained the capita ...

provincial capital A capital city, or just capital, is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state, province, department, or other subnational division, usually as its seat of the government. A capital is typically a city that physically encomp ...

). Its location made it an important market town, as it was also located on an intersection of the Nakasendō with the Minoji, a 60 kilometer secondary road which connected the Nakasendō with the Tōkaidō at Miya-juku, with nine post stations. Nakasendo Tarui-juku
. Ibisoku Co., Ltd. Accessed July 11, 2007. The town thus served as a major transportation hub for western

, benefitting also from its location on the banks of the Ai River. In the early

, the system of post stations on the Nakasendō was formalized by the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...

in 1602, and it became a stopping place for traveling merchants and was on the ''

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 ...

'' route used by various western ''

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 ...

'' to-and-from the Shogun's court in

. Tarui-juku was divided into three parts: western, middle and eastern. Its ''

honjin image:Ohara-juku01s3200.jpg, The ''honjin'' at Inaba Kaidō's Ōhara-shuku. is the Japanese word for an inn for government officials, generally located in post stations (''shukuba'') during the later part of the Edo period. Evolution of ''Honjin ...

'' was located in the middle section. Per the 1843 guidebook issued by the , the town had a population of 1179 people in 315 houses, including one ''

'', one ''waki-honjin,'' and 27 ''

hatago were Edo period lodgings for travelers at ''shukuba'' (post stations) along the national highways, including the Edo Five Routes and the subroutes. In addition to a place to rest, ''hatago'' also offered meals and other foods to the travelers. ...

''. The ''honjin'' was in the middle section of the post station, and only its gate remains. Several old houses are still standing and two old inns, the Nagahama and the Kamemuraya (rebuilt in 1777) still survive.

Tarui-juku in ''The Sixty-nine Stations of the Kiso Kaidō''

Utagawa Hiroshige's ''

ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art that flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock printing, woodblock prints and Nikuhitsu-ga, paintings of such subjects as female beauties; kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers; scenes ...

'' print of Tarui-juku dates from 1835 -1838. The print depicts the pine tree lined route of the highway, with a ''daimyō'' procession approaching. A station official walks in front of the procession to warn passersby to kneel to show their respect. Low stone walls mark the border of the post station, and the vanguard of the procession, wearing straw raincoats, has already crossed. The '' kago'' with the ''daimyō'' inside can just been seen in the distance. On one side of the composition is a tea house advertising '' Chazuke'', a dish made by muring

green tea Green tea is a type of tea made from the leaves and buds of the '' Camellia sinensis'' that have not undergone the withering and oxidation process that creates oolong teas and black teas. Green tea originated in China in the late 1st millenn ...

over boiled rice. It also displays the mark of Hiroshige's publisher Kinjudo, and prints for sale can be seen hanging inside the building. Similarly, another open-fronted building selling prints is located on the opposite side of the road.

Neighboring post towns

;Nakasendō : Akasaka-juku - Tarui-juku -

Sekigahara-juku was the fifty-eighth of the sixty-nine stations of the Nakasendō connecting Edo with Kyoto in Edo period Japan. It is located in former Mino Province in what is now part of the town of Sekigahara, Fuwa District, Gifu Prefecture, Japan. Hist ...

;Minoji : Ōgaki-juku - Tarui-juku ''(ending location)''

Notes

References

* * * *

External links

Hiroshige Kiso-Kaido seriesTarui-juku on Kiso Kaido RoadGifu Nakasendo Guide
{{Nakasendō Stations of the Nakasendō Post stations in Gifu Prefecture Tarui, Gifu Mino Province