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

Stations of the Nakasendō

Musashi	Nihonbashi Itabashi Warabi Urawa Ōmiya Ageo Okegawa Kōnosu Fukiage (ai no shuku) Kumagai Fukaya Honjō

Kōzuke	Shinmachi Kuragano (intersects with Nikkō Reiheishi Kaidō) Takasaki Itahana Annaka Matsuida Sakamoto

Shinano	Karuisawa Kutsukake Oiwake Otai Iwamurada Shionada Yawata Mochizuki Motai (ai no shuku) Ashida Nagakubo Wada Shimosuwa (intersects with Kōshū Kaidō) Shiojiri (intersects with Shio no Michi) Seba Motoyama Niekawa Narai Yabuhara Miyanokoshi Fukushima Agematsu Suhara Nojiri Midono Tsumago

Mino	Magome Ochiai Nakatsugawa Ōi Ōkute Hosokute Mitake Fushimi Ōta Unuma Shinkanō (ai no shuku) Kanō Gōdo Mieji Akasaka Tarui Sekigahara Imasu

Ōmi	Kashiwabara Samegai Banba Toriimoto Takamiya Echigawa Musa Moriyama (merges with Tōkaidō to Sanjō Ōhashi) Kusatsu Ōtsu

Yamashiro	Sanjō Ōhashi

↑ Kumaga-shuku. National Nakasendō Association. Accessed August 15, 2007.
↑ Living in This Town: Story of Kumagai-shuku. The Yomiuri Shinbun. Accessed August 15, 2007.

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