Samegai-juku

Samegai-juku 醒井宿
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 / 35.329000; 136.351083
Elevation	120 meters
Line(s)	Nakasendō
Distance	457 kilometers from Edo
Location
Samegai-juku Location within Shiga Prefecture Show map of Shiga Prefecture Samegai-juku Samegai-juku (Japan) Show map of Japan

Samegai-juku (醒井宿, Samegai-juku) was the sixty-first of the sixty-nine stations of the Nakasendō highway connecting Edo with Kyoto in Edo period Japan. It was located in the present-day city of Maibara, Shiga Prefecture, Japan.

History

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 (近江商人)) who originated from Ōmi Province. It was on the sankin-kōtai route by various western daimyō to-and-from the Shogun's court in Edo. The station was also a transportation hub, as the Jizogawa river was navigable by small boats and barges, and was used to carry goods. Samegai-juku had seven warehouses (Tonyaba) lining its banks, far more than most other stations.

Per the 1843 "中山道宿村大概帳" (Nakasendō Shukuson Taigaichō) guidebook issued by the Inspector of Highways (道中奉行, Dōchu-būgyō), the town had a population of 539 people in 138 houses, including one honjin, one waki-honjin, and 11 hatago.

Modern Samegai-juku

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

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

• 
  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

Nakasendō

Kashiwabara-juku - Samegai-juku - Banba-juku

Notes

References

• 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

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Samegai-juku.

• Hiroshige Kiso-Kaido series
• Takamiya-juku on Kiso Kaido Road
• Maibara city home page (in Japanese)