The Five Roads of Edo Japan
How the shogunate's five great highways — and the 214 post towns that served them — moved a country on foot.
An English guide to the shukuba — the post towns of the Edo Five Roads. For two and a half centuries these 214 towns lodged the daimyo processions, merchants, pilgrims and porters who moved Japan on foot. Every station has its own page: where it stood, what is there today, how far it lies from Nihonbashi, and the full text of its encyclopedia article.
214 post towns · 5 roads · 120 Hiroshige & Eisen woodblock prints

Scroll inside the frame to browse the Tōkaidō stations.





















































Scroll inside the frame to browse the Nakasendō stations.





































































Scroll inside the frame to browse the Kōshū Kaidō stations.


Scroll inside the frame to browse the Ōshū Kaidō stations.



Scroll inside the frame to browse the Nikkō Kaidō stations.



How the shogunate's five great highways — and the 214 post towns that served them — moved a country on foot.
Utagawa Hiroshige never walked most of the Tōkaidō — but his Fifty-three Stations made the post towns immortal.