The Bitter End

Art of the Edo Period

The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido

39. Chiryu-juku (Chiryu)

Chiryu-juku

Chiryu-juku was the thirty-ninth of the fifty-three stations of the Tokaido. It is located in the present-day city of Chiryu in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. It was the westernmost post town in Mikawa Province, and was 330 kilometres (210 mi) from Nihonbashi, the start of the Tokaido, so it took approximately 10 days to for average travellers to reach.

History

Chiryu-juku was noted for a famed Shinto shrine, the Chiryu Daimyojin, and also for its flourishing horse market, held in late April to early May of each year. Tokugawa Ieyasu ordered that the post station plant pine trees along through route of the highway before and after the town.

The classic ukiyoe print by Ando Hiroshige (Hoeido edition) from 1831 to 1834 depicts horses, and also one of the pine trees. Hiroshige entitled the work Summer Horse Market.

Despite the construction of railroads following the Meiji restoration the horse market continued into the Showa period, and most of the pine trees survived until the 1959 Isewan Typhoon.