The Bitter End

Art of the Edo Period

The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido

49. Tsuchiyama-juku (Koka)

Tsuchiyama-juku

Tsuchiyama-juku was the forty-ninth of the fifty-three stations of the Tokaido. It is located in the present-day city of Koka, in Shiga Prefecture, Japan.

History

Tsuchiyama-juku flourished as a post town during the Edo period because of its location at the entrance to the Suzuka Pass. However, the Suzuka Pass was also the reason for the post town's decline in the Meiji period; the pass was too steep for rail lines to be placed down, so the rail went through Terasho Station (also in present-day Koka), bypassing the formerly flourishing town. The remains of the honjin can still be visited today.