was the fifty-second 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 city of Kakamigahara,

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 ...

.Unuma-juku Juunin Homepage
Unuma-juku Juunin. Accessed July 10, 2007.

History

Unuma was an important junction linking the routes that connected the provinces of Mino and Owari. It is of ancient origin, having been a stop on the old

Tōsandō is a Japanese geographical term. It means both an ancient division of the country and the main road running through it. It is part of the ''Gokishichidō'' system. It was situated along the central mountains of northern Honshu, specifically th ...

road, that predated the creation of the Nakasendō. It was also the last post station on the Inagi Kaidō, which was a side road connecting Inuyama with what is now central

Nagoya is the largest city in the Chūbu region of Japan. It is the list of cities in Japan, fourth-most populous city in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020, and the principal city of the Chūkyō metropolitan area, which is the List of ...

. The eastern and western portions of the old post town joined together to become a formal post station in 1651. During the Edo period, it was part of the territory of the

Owari Domain The Owari-Han, also known as the Owari Domain, was a significant feudal domain in Tokugawa shogunate, Japan during the Edo period. Situated in the western region of what is now Aichi Prefecture, it covered portions of Owari Province, Owari, Mino ...

, governed via Inuyama Castle, located on the opposite bank of the Kiso River, about two kilometers south. Per the 1843 guidebook issued by the , the town had a population of 246 people in 68 houses, including one ''

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 ...

'', one ''waki-honjin,'' and 25 ''

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. ...

''. Unuma-juku is 396.0 kilometers from

and approximately six kilometers from the preceding post town,

Ōta-juku was the fifty-first of the 69 Stations of the Nakasendō, 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 city of Minokamo, Gifu, Minokamo, Gi ...

. Modern Unuma-juku has been preserved with restoration of several of its surviving old buildings, including the ''waki-honjin'', as well as several ''

machiya are traditional wooden townhouses found throughout Japan and typified in the historical capital of Kyoto. ('townhouses') and ('farm dwellings') constitute the two categories of Japanese vernacular architecture known as ('folk dwellings'). ...

'', a ''

sake Sake, , or saki, also referred to as Japanese rice wine, is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Despite the name ''Japanese rice wine'', sake, and indeed any East Asi ...

'' brewery and other structures, and (unusually for Japanese towns), the electrical and telephone wires were buried underground. Restoration work was completed in 2013 and the area is now a popular tourist destination. The old post town contains such historical treasures as Kuan-ji Temple, the ancient tomb of Ishozuka, and

haiku is a type of short form poetry that originated in Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases composed of 17 Mora (linguistics), morae (called ''On (Japanese prosody), on'' in Japanese) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern; that include a ''kire ...

-engraved monuments left by

Matsuo Bashō ; born , later known as was the most famous Japanese poet of the Edo period. During his lifetime, Bashō was recognized for his works in the collaborative '' haikai no renga'' form; today, after centuries of commentary, he is recognized as th ...

.Unuma-juku
You Yuu Tokai. Accessed July 10, 2007.

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

Utagawa Hiroshige or , born Andō Tokutarō (; 1797 – 12 October 1858), was a Japanese ''ukiyo-e'' artist, considered the last great master of that tradition. Hiroshige is best known for his horizontal-format landscape series '' The Fifty-three Stations ...

'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 Unuma-juku dates from 1835 -1838. The print depicts a dramatic and rather stylized view of Inuyama Castle from the Owari side of the Kiso River. Travelers are crossing a wooden bridge over a moat, towards a ferry landing. The post station itself is barely visible in the far distance across a wide river.

Gallery

Unumajuku machiyakan.JPG, restored ''machiya'' Unukajuku zenkei.JPG, View from Ninomiya Jinja 菊川酒造の蔵 - 2.jpg, Kikugawa sake brewery

Neighboring Post Towns

;Nakasendō :

- Unuma-juku - Kanō-juku :( Shinkanō-juku was an ''

ai no shuku were unofficial post stations along historical routes in Japan. These post stations formed organically along routes (such as the Tōkaidō and the Nakasendō) when the distance between two places was too far or when there were difficult passes ...

'' located between Unuma-juku and Kanō-juku.) ;Inagi Kaidō :Unuma-juku - Inuyama-juku

Notes

References

* * * *

External links

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