Post Towns of JapanShukuba of the Five Edo Roads · English Guide

Home / Tōkaidō / Hakone-juku

Tōkaidō · Station 10 of 53

Hakone-juku 箱根宿

Ashigarashimo district, Kanagawa, JapanAbout 98.1 km from Nihonbashi
Hakone-juku
Hakone-juku (箱根宿) — woodblock printWoodblock print: Utagawa Hiroshige — from The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō (public domain), via Wikimedia Commons
Tōkaidō (東海道)Station 10 of 53 · Nihonbashi (Edo) → Kyoto
Present-day locationAshigarashimo district, Kanagawa, Japan
PrefectureKanagawa (Kanto region)
Distance from NihonbashiAbout 98.1 km (by the historical station tables)
Next stationMishima-shuku — about 14.8 km on
Coordinates35.18949° N, 139.02537° E

Hakone-juku (箱根宿, Hakone-juku) was the tenth of the fifty-three stations of the Tōkaidō. It is located in the present-day town of Hakone in Ashigarashimo District, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. At an elevation of 725m, it is the highest post station on the entire Tōkaidō and was even difficult for the bakufu to maintain.

History

Hakone-juku was established in 1618, in a small area between Hakone Pass (on Mount Hakone) and the Hakone Checkpoint. The original Hakone-juku was on the Edo (modern-day Tokyo) side of the Hakone Checkpoint; however, the people living there at the time refused to build a honjin to create a new post station. As a result, the post town was developed on the side of the checkpoint heading towards Kyoto. The first settlers in the new post town originally lived in either Odawara-juku or Mishima-shuku, the neighboring post stations, but were forced to Hakone-juku.

Neighboring post towns

Tōkaidō
Odawara-juku – Hakone-juku – Mishima-shuku
Advertisement

Text adapted from the English Wikipedia article Hakone-juku by its contributors, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Station facts cross-checked with the road station lists (Japanese Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Wikidata (CC0).

More post towns in Kanagawa

← Tōkaidō No. 9 · Odawara-jukuTōkaidō No. 11 · Mishima-shuku →