Edo Five Routes (Gokaido)
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3. Salient features on each of Edo Five Routes a. Tokaido Let us look at salient features on each of Edo Five Routes. First, let us take a look at Tokaido. Tokaido was one of the most main crucial roads in Edo Five Routes. It went from Edo through towns near the sea to Kyoto, or to Osaka. Travelers walked through Tokaido in about 2 weeks, but when they were not able to cross rivers which were not spanned bridges because of bad weather, they spent more time. It contained 53 post stations (shukuba). One of the famous black points was Hakone Pass. It was the highest point in Tokaido, and a barrier (sekisho) was established there. |
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b. Nakasendo and Koshu-kaido Second, let us move on to Nakasendo and Koshu-kaido. These two routes and above-mentioned Tokaido ran in the east-west direction. Nakasendo was another road between Edo to Kyoto, but it went through mountain villages. Travelers walking through Nakasendo usually took more a few days than they who used Tokaido, but they did not need to worry about crossing rivers. There were 69 post stations in Nakasendo. Then, Koshu-kaido, which had 32 or 45 post stations, was the road between Edo past Kai Province, which is today Yamanashi Prefecture, and Shimosuwa-shuku which was also post station of Nakasendo. Hence, there were two paths between Edo and Shimosuwa-shuku. Out of two, people who went from Edo to Kyoto often used Nakasendo. |
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c. Oshu-kaido and Nikko-kaido Finally, let us consider Oshu-kaido and Nikko-kaido. These two routes ran from north to south. Oshu-kaido was the road from Edo and Shirakawa, which is today Fukushima Prefecture. There were 27 post stations in Oshu-kaido. From road of Shirakawa was called Sendai-Matsumae-do. This road led up Hakodate in Ezo (Hokkaido). Then, Nikko-kaido, which had 21 post stations, was the road from Edo to Nikko Tosho-Gu. Its road shared road and 17 post stations of Oshu-kaido between Edo and Utsunomiya in Shimotsuke Province (Tochigi Prefecture). |