Miya-juku

Miya-juku in the 1830s, as depicted by Hiroshige in the Hōeidō edition of The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō (1831–1834)

Miya-juku (宮宿, Miya-juku) was the forty-first of the fifty-three stations of the Tōkaidō. It is located in former Owari Province in what is now part of the Atsuta-ku section of the city of Nagoya, in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. It was six km from Narumi-juku, the preceding post station.[1]

History

In addition to being a post station on the Tōkaidō, Miya-juku was also part of the Minoji (a minor route which runs to Tarui-juku on the Nakasendō) and the Saya Kaidō. As a result, it had the most hatago of any post station along the Tōkaidō, with two honjin, one wakihonjin and 248 lesser inns.

The classic ukiyo-e print by Andō Hiroshige (Hōeidō edition) from 1831 to 1834 depicts two gangs of men dragging a portable shrine cart (not shown) past a huge torii gate. The torii gate is the symbol of a Shinto shrine, and the name of "Miya" also means a "Shinto shrine". The shrine in question is the famous Atsuta Shrine, one of the most famous in Japan and a popular pilgrimage destination in the Edo period. [2] The area is now part of downtown Nagoya metropolis.

Neighboring post towns

Tōkaidō
Narumi-juku - Miya-juku - Kuwana-juku
Saya Kaidō
Miya-juku (starting location) - Iwazuka-juku
Minoji
Miya-juku (starting location) - Nagoya-juku

Further reading

  • Carey, Patrick. Rediscovering the Old Tokaido:In the Footsteps of Hiroshige. Global Books UK (2000). ISBN 1-901903-10-9
  • Chiba, Reiko. Hiroshige's Tokaido in Prints and Poetry. Tuttle. (1982) ISBN 0-8048-0246-7
  • Taganau, Jilly. The Tokaido Road: Travelling and Representation in Edo and Meiji Japan. RoutledgeCurzon (2004). ISBN 0-415-31091-1

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Miya-juku.
  1. ^ Tokaido 53: Miya-juku (Nagoya) Archived 2007-10-15 at the Wayback Machine. (in Japanese) Tōkaidō no Tabi. Accessed March 7, 2008.
  2. ^ "Hiroshige - Tokaido Hoeido". Archived from the original on 2011-12-16. Retrieved 2012-01-20.

35°07′44″N 136°54′51″E / 35.1289°N 136.9143°E / 35.1289; 136.9143