Traveling along the Tokaido Route

The Tokaido is one of the five major travel routes used in the Edo period. In ancient times, it was a broad-area local administrative district within goki shichido (the five provinces and seven circuits). In the Kamakura period, however, the name “Tokaido” came to signify a major route that ran through that region. After Ieyasu Tokugawa established the so called tenma (literally “post-horse”) system in 1601 by setting up horse-changing stations at post towns along major routes in order to facilitate transportation and ensure convenient official travel, the Tokaido was gradually built and improved. As it connected Edo with Kyoto, the Tokaido was the most important of the five routes, and as such, it was placed under the direct jurisdiction of the Shogunate. There were 53 post stations between Nihonbashi in Edo and Sanjo Ohashi Bridge in Kyoto, commonly known as “The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido.” The names of these 53 post stations from east to west are: Shinagawa in present-day Tokyo, Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Hodogaya, Totsuka, Fujisawa, Hiratsuka, Oiso, Odawara, and Hakone in present-day Kanagawa Prefecture, Mishima, Numazu, Hara, Yoshiwara, Kanbara, Yui, Okitsu, Ejiri, Fuchu, Mariko, Okabe, Fujieda, Shimada, Kanaya, Nissaka, Kakegawa, Fukuroi, Mitsuke, Hamamatsu, Maisaka, Arai, and Shirasuka in present-day Shizuoka Prefecture, Futagawa, Yoshida, Goyu, Akasaka, Fujikawa, Okazaki, Chiryu, Narumi, and Miya in present-day Aichi Prefecture, Kuwana, Yokkaichi, Ishiyakushi, Shono, Kameyama, Seki, and Sakashita in present-day Mie Prefecture, and Tsuchiyama, Minaguchi, Ishibe, Kusatsu, and Otsu in present-day Shiga Prefecture. 

Presented here are some representative examples of paintings and other materials about these 53 post stations, as well as the first post (Nihonbashi) and the terminal post (Sanjo Ohashi) of the Tokaido Route.