Samegai-juku
Samegai-juku | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
post station | |||||
![]() Hiroshige's print of Samegai-juku, part of the Sixty-nine Stations of the Kiso Kaidō series | |||||
General information | |||||
Location | Maibara, Shiga (former Ōmi Province) Japan | ||||
Coordinates | 35°19′44.4″N 136°21′03.9″E / 35.329000°N 136.351083°E | ||||
Elevation | 120 meters | ||||
Line(s) | Nakasendō | ||||
Distance | 457 kilometers from Edo | ||||
|
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2e/Samegai-juku_in_Maibara_from_%C5%8Cmi-meisyo-zue.png/220px-Samegai-juku_in_Maibara_from_%C5%8Cmi-meisyo-zue.png)
Samegai-juku (
History[edit]
Samegai-juku has a very long history, and was mentioned by name in the Nihon Shoki, which was completed in 720 AD, and in the even earlier Kojiki chronicle in connection with the Yamato Takeru mythology. It was located on the ancient Tōsandō highway connecting the capital of Heian-kyō with the provinces of eastern Japan, and continued to be mentioned in the diaries and the poems of travelers in the Heian and Kamakura periods. One of the main attractions of this station was the fresh and clear waters from the nearby Jizogawa river and many travelers thought of Samegai as a proper resting place.[1]
In the early Edo period, the system of post stations on the Nakasendō was formalized by the Tokugawa shogunate in 1602, and it was a stopping place for traveling merchants (Ōmi shōnin (
Per the 1843 "
Modern Samegai-juku[edit]
There are still ten buildings remaining from the Edo period today, giving visitors an idea of how the town looked hundreds of years ago.[2] There is also an archives museum located in a Meiji period former post office which gives greater detail to the post town's past.
Samegai-juku in The Sixty-nine Stations of the Kiso Kaidō[edit]
Utagawa Hiroshige's ukiyo-e print of Samegai-juku dates from 1835 -1838. The print is dominated by a large pine tree in the center of the composition, with the thatched roofs of several buildings in the background. These buildings are the famous Rokken jaya of Samegai-juku, six hatago built for the purposes of housing the retinues which accompanied daimyō processions (while the lord himself stayed at the honjin). Two samurai retainers, one bearing a long spear, approach the buildings, while on the slope behind, four more have loads on their shoulders. The scene is observed by a seated farmer smoking a pipe, with the Hira Mountains in the background, beyond which is Lake Biwa.
Gallery[edit]
-
old building in Samegai-juku
-
Panorama of Samegai-juku
-
Jizogawa
-
Kamo Jinja
-
former Samegai Post Office, now a museum
-
Museum of Woodcarving in Samegai
Neighboring post towns[edit]
- Nakasendō
- Kashiwabara-juku - Samegai-juku - Banba-juku
Notes[edit]
- ^ Machinami Kaidō Samegai-juku. Accessed July 23, 2007.
- ^ Samegai-juku Kankō & Rējā Gaido Archived 2006-06-28 at the Wayback Machine. Shobunka Publications, Inc. Accessed July 23, 2007.
References[edit]
- Izzard, Sebastian (2008). The Sixty-Nine Stations of the Kisokaido. George Braziller. ISBN 0807615935.
- Berna, Cristina (2019). Hiroshige 69 Stations of the Nakasendō. Missys Clan. ISBN 2919787667.
- Kishimoto, Yutaka (2016).
中山道 浪漫 の旅 書 き込 み手帖 . Shinano Mainichi Shimbun. ISBN 4784072977. (in Japanese) - Yagi, Makio (2014). ちゃんと
歩 ける中山道 六 十 九 次 西 藪原 宿 ~京 三条 大橋 .山 と渓谷社 . ISBN 4635600785. (in Japanese)
External links[edit]
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)