Kumagai-shuku

Keisai Eisen's print of Kumagai-shuku, part of the The Sixty-nine Stations of the Kiso Kaidō series

Kumagai-shuku (熊谷宿, Kumagai-shuku) was the eighth of the sixty-nine stations of the Nakasendō. It is located in the present-day city of Kumagaya, Saitama Prefecture, Japan.

History

Kumagai-shuku was the first training center for Buddhists in the Kantō region and had two honjin during the Edo period, but was still a rather small post town.^[1] Traces of its past, such as Buddhist temples like Yūkoku-ji (熊谷寺), can still be found around the old post town. Starting in the Meiji period, Kumagai-shuku flourished as a produce of barley and silk.^[2]

Kanji readings

The city (Kumagaya), post station (Kumagai) and temple (Yūkoku) all share the same characters for their names. The reading of those characters, however, has evolved over time, leading to confusion among visitors.

Neighboring post towns

Nakasendō

Kōnosu-shuku - Kumagai-shuku - Fukaya-shuku

(Fukiage-shuku was an ai no shuku located between Kōnosu-shuku and Kumagai-shuku.)

References