Tsumago-Juku(冬の妻籠宿)Walk the Japanese Old Post Station in Winter | Nagano Japan

Tsumago-Juku(冬の妻籠宿)Walk the Japanese Old Post Station in Winter

Walk the Japanese Old Post town Tsumago-Juku at Nagano Japan in Winter
This is a video of walking around Tsumago-juku, the 42nd post town on Nakasendo, where the scenery of Kisoji, which is full of Edo atmosphere, is beautiful.
Nakasendo is one of the Edo Five Routes (五街道, Gokaidō) constructed during the Edo period.
This route is a 540km routes that connects Nihonbashi in Edo and Sanjo Ohashi in Kyoto(Current Tokyo and Kyoto Prefecture Japan) via the inland northbound route, which is different from the Tokaido that runs southward along the Pacific coast.
The part that passes through the Kiso region is also called Kiso Kaido or Kiso Road, and there are 11 post stations consisting of Kamishijuku, Nakasanjuku, and Shimoshijuku, which are collectively called Kiso 11juku.
In winter, when it was cold and snowfall was heavy, the walking distance was shortened, but there was a lot of traffic on Kisoji.
It is said that the reason why this route was often chosen was that the crackdown by the Edo Shogunate was strict and that it also meant avoiding the Tokaido, which has many difficult points such as Hakone Touge.
Therefore, there are 16 more inns in the post town between Edo and Kyoto than in the Tokaido.
Since the beginning of the Showa era, the Kiso cityscape preservation project has become a basic policy, and in 1973, the town’s own townscape preservation ordinance, the “Tsumagojuku Preservation Ordinance,” was enacted.
Three years later, it was praised for its efforts in landscape conservation activities along with the revision to the “Tsumagojuku Preservation District Conservation Ordinance”, and it became the first selection site for the National Important Preservation Districts for Traditional Buildings.
Currently, it is popular as a tourist attraction that represents Kiso Road along with the neighboring Magome-juku, and is visited by many tourists including foreigners.