How long does it take to travel from Tokyo to Kyoto nowadays? By bus, it takes about six and a half hours, and by Shinkansen (bullet train), around two hours and twenty minutes. But what about in the Edo period, over 500 years ago? How did people travel from Tokyo to Kyoto back then?
After unifying Japan, Tokugawa Ieyasu established the Five Routes [1], including the Tōkaidō and Nakasendō, which connected Tokyo and Kyoto. This article focuses mainly on the Nakasendō. Stretching approximately 532 kilometers, the Nakasendō passed through rugged mountain passes and frigid inland areas, typically taking about 16 to 27 days to traverse. To accommodate travelers, a post town (shukuba) was established roughly every 8 kilometers along the route.
This article introduces Narai-juku, the 34th post town along the Nakasendō. Unlike the more famous Tsumago-juku and Magome-juku, Narai-juku isn’t widely known to the general public, but that also means you can quietly explore and appreciate this place.
Getting to Narai-juku is relatively convenient. Just take a regular train from Shinshu-Shinano or Kiso-Fukushima heading toward Nagoya, though you need to be careful as some trains take nearly two hours due to detours. On the day of my visit, I took the Shinano 6 train from Nagano at 9:00 a.m. bound for Shinshu-Shinano, then transferred to the 10:50 a.m. ordinary train on the Chūō West Line. The total train ride took just an hour and a half, but I had to wait nearly an hour for the connection at Shinshu-Shinano Station.
That day, I reserved my afternoon train tickets at the station and wrote postcards to pass the time.
Narai-juku is located at the foot of Torii Pass [2], one of the most challenging sections of the Nakasendō. As a result, it attracted many travelers who needed to stay overnight, eventually forming Japan’s longest post town, also known as “Narai Thousand Houses [3].”
As a government-designated Traditional Buildings Conservation Area, the buildings in the post town are strictly regulated. Any renovations, new constructions, or alterations within the area require official approval, and new buildings must prioritize maintaining visual harmony with surrounding structures.
As a result, modern facilities such as utility poles and vending machines have been removed from Narai-juku, demonstrating that Japan’s cultural heritage preservation laws focus not only on maintaining the buildings themselves but also on preserving the overall landscape.
Returning to the story of the post towns, the accommodations in these towns were divided into “ryokan-style inns (ryokuya)” and “lodgings where guests provided their own rice (machiya).” Ryokan-style inns offered breakfast and dinner—what we often refer to as “room and two meals”—and some even provided bento boxes for guests to take with them. Machiya, on the other hand, required guests to bring their own rice, while the inn provided firewood for cooking, making them a more affordable option. According to records, in 1830, machiya were about five times cheaper than ryokan-style inns, hence they were considered budget-friendly accommodations at the time.
There were six water stations (mizubasho) within the post town area. These provided mountain spring water, originally used as drinking water for travelers, and today still serve as the community’s domestic and firefighting water supply.
Although it is one of the busiest post towns along the Nakasendō, due to its location near the challenging Torii Pass, Narai-juku’s atmosphere is more akin to that of a quiet Japanese countryside village, quite different from the bustle of urban life.
Narai-juku has shrines at both ends. The one closer to Torii Pass is called “Suwa Shrine.” Suwa Shrine enshrines the wind and thunder gods and was initially established due to an epidemic that struck Narai-juku. It later became a place where travelers prayed for safe journeys.
This is a place filled with the rich colors of Japan’s Edo period—a rural escape you can’t enjoy in the big city. This is Narai-juku. Why not come and take your own peaceful stroll through the Japanese countryside?
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[1] The Five Routes were the five major overland transportation arteries of the Edo period in Japan, starting from Edo (Tokyo). They include the Tōkaidō, Nikkō Kaidō, Ōshū Kaidō, Nakasendō, and Kōshū Kaidō.
[2] Torii Pass, written in Japanese kanji, phonetically resembles words meaning “bird,” “gate,” and “pass,” which together suggest the idea of a “gateway for birds.”
[3] “Thousand Houses” uses the Japanese counter “ken” for houses. It’s an exaggerated term implying there were nearly a thousand inns.
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Original location: Late Summer Journey in Eastern Japan (Part 8) — Narai-juku in Kiso
Flickr album: Shinshu · Echigo / 2016
Instagram: fai_redefined