Mito Kaido Highway

[ . BACK to DARUMA　MUSEUM　TOP . ]
. Famous People of Japan .
. Kaido 街道 Highways - ABC Index .
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Mito Kaido 水戸街道　Mito Highway
From Edo, Senju Juku to Mito city in 茨城県 Ibaraki.
For Sankin Kotai of the Mito Clan.
Mito doochuu 水戸道中　Mito Dochu road
Hitachi Kaido 常陸街道 Hitachi Highway

. Tokugawa Mitsukuni 徳川光圀 - Mito Komon 水戸黄門 .
(1628 - 1701)

People traveling from Mito to Edo called the road
Edo Kaido 江戸街道 Edo Highway

- - - - - Postal stations on the way - - - - -

Tokyo
01. Senju juku (千住宿) (also part of the Nikkō Kaidō)
02. Nii juku (新宿) Niijuku (not to mix with Shinjuku 新宿)

Chiba Prefecture
03. Matsudo juku (松戸宿)
04. Kogane juku (小金宿)
05. Abiko juku (我孫子宿)

Ibaraki Prefecture
06. Toride juku (取手宿)
07. Fujishiro juku (藤代宿)
08. Wakashiba juku (若柴宿)
09. Ushiku juku (牛久宿)
10. Arakawaoki juku (荒川沖宿)
11. Nakamura juku (中村宿)
12. Tsuchiura juku (土浦宿)
13. Nakanuki juku (中貫宿)
14. Inayoshi juku (稲吉宿)
15. Fuchū juku (府中宿)
16. Takehara juku (竹原宿)
17. Katakura juku (片倉宿)
18. Obata juku (小幡宿)
19. Nagaoka juku (長岡宿)
20. Mito juku (水戸宿)

- reference source : rekisanpota.blogspot.com... -
水戸街道のルート地図を作成してみた

Details and photos of all the postal stations:
- reference source : Mito Kaido Dochu -

旧水戸街道繁盛記
山本鉱太郎

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Hitachi Province (常陸国, Hitachi no Kuni)
was an old province of Japan in the area of Ibaraki Prefecture. It was sometimes called Jōshū (常州). Hitachi Province bordered on Iwashiro, Iwaki, Shimōsa, and Shimotsuke Provinces.
The ancient provincial capital and temple were located near modern Ishioka and have been excavated, while the chief shrine was further east at Kashima. In the Sengoku period the area was divided among several daimyōs, but the chief castle town was usually the modern city of Mito.
- - - More in the WIKIPEDIA !

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- Click on the photos for more pictures !

. Senju 千住 Senju district .
Since traffic passing Senju was busy since the early Edo period, Tokugawa Ieyasu allowed a large bridge to be built over the river 隅田川 Sumidagawa in 1594. It was about 200 meters more upstream than the bridge is now, and the postal station 千住宿 Senju-Shuku was on the North side of the bridge (Kita Senju).

Senju in Musashi Province
Katsushika Hokusai

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. Nii juku (新宿 / にいじゅく) Niijuku .

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- reference source : 松戸宿 Matsudo juku -

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Koganejuku 小金宿

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Toridejuku 取手宿

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Nakanukijuku 中貫宿

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Inayoshijuku 稲吉宿

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Takeharajuku 竹原宿

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. Dolls from Tsuchiura 土浦市 .

. 青竜大権現 Seiryu Daigongen Blue Dragon from Obata 小幡.

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Hitachi no Kuni Fudoki 常陸国風土記 Records of Hitachi Province
秋本吉徳 Akimoto Yoshinori

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. Legends and Tales from Japan　伝説 - Introduction .

.................................................................................　Chiba 千葉県
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我孫子市 Abiko city / 阿比古

. Ketsubon Kyo Sutra 血盆経 .
and Hossho Daizenni no rei 法性大禅尼の霊 the spirit of the nun Hossho Daizen-Ni
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. ushi 牛と伝説 Legends about ox, bull, cow . . .
The master of the pond 手賀沼 Teganuma is a bull.
Once upon a time, a young priest came to the hamlet of Abiko and won the respect of all villagers.
But nobody had ever seen him eat anything.
One day he said "All my children and grand-children, may you stay healthy!" 「我が孫や子よ、健やかなれ」
Then he changed his form into a white ox and disappeared. Since then the spelling of ABIKO changed from
阿比古 to 我孫子 (my grand children and children)

.................................................................................　Ibaraki 茨城県
藤代宿 Fujishiro juku

. oogon butsu 黄金仏 Golden Buddha .

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Ibaraki 長岡 Nagaoka

- folk belief -
The family of 平塚カツ子家 Hiratsuka Etsuko does not grow shooga ショウガ /生姜 ginger or ninniku ニンニク garlic.
If they do, disaster would come over the family. But if they get it as a present or buy it at the store, this is no problem.

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Ibaraki 竹原村 Takehara village

. Kappa densetsu　河童伝説 legends about the Kappa .
Since many people had died in accidents in the river, the villagers decided they had to do something about it.
They begun to pray to him as 水神様 Sujjin Sama and held rituals for him by the riverside.
They even built a mound for him, 河童塚 Kappazuka.

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Ibaraki 取手市 Toride

. kitsune densetsu 狐と伝説 fox legends .
One day grandmother did not come home and all went searching for her. She was squatting in the middle of the field when they found her. Asked what she was doing, she replied:
"I am combing the hair of this man!"
They all thought she must have been bewitched by a fox.

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Ibaraki 土浦市 Tsuchiura city

In 鷹匠町 Takajo town at the temple 龍泉寺 Ryusen-Ji there is a special nettle tree

enoki hachiman 榎八幡 Nettle tree at the Hachiman shrine.
If people touch its leaves, the tree would take revenge.
Once upon a time, the Samurai 信太範宗 Shida Norimune had killed the child of his younger brother and it was buried at the temple Ryusen-Ji.
Since the grave was cursed, people built a Hachiman Shrine nearby and planted a nettle tree to appease the soul.

. enoki 榎 nettle tree, Japanese hackberry .

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Inari sama no tatari 稲荷さまのたたり the curse of Inari
Once a man built a sumigama 炭竈 / 炭窯 kiln for making charcoal in a corner of his property. Soon his child became very ill and died. His next child also died suddenly. Then his third child became this strange illness. The father became suspicious and asked a fortune-teller for advise. He was told that the smoke from the kiln was annoying to the Inari Deity.
He tore town the kiln immediately and the child was saved.
. Inari 稲荷と伝説 Legends about the Fox Deity .
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itazura boosan いたずら坊さん a naughty priest
A man walked the road at night and in front of him walked a priest, holding a bright choochin 提灯 lantern.
He hurried to come close to the priest and walk together with him, but however much he hurried, he could not catch up.
It must have been a 狐 fox or 狸 Tanuki posing as a priest.
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. kane 鐘と伝説 Legends about the temple bell .
弁慶 Benkei had loaded the stolen temple bell on a boat and wanted to cross the lake. Close to 三又 Mimata the bell suddenly begun to sound. A strong wind begun to blow, waves got higher and the boat was about to sink. So Benkei threw the bell into the lake and soon it became quiet and the moon begun to shine bright.
The bell is at the bottom of the lake to our day, sometimes one can see a whirlpool.
On stormy nights one can even hear the bell toll.
. Benkei 弁慶と伝説 Legends about Musashibo Benkei .
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Sankichigitsune, Sankichi Kitsune 三吉狐 The fox Sankichi
At the town hall there lived an old couple as caretakers. One day in the evening the old woman went out for an errand but did not come back. They looked for but could not find her.
Next morning they found her standing confused near 観音堂の池 the pond of the Kannon Hall. She had come as far as the lake but could not find her way back home. She must have been bewitched by Sankichi.
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Once a mother with her baby on the back passed by the home of Sankichi the fox, when the baby begun to cry very loud. The mother hurried to get home, but when she looked at her baby, it was dead, killed by Sankichi.
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Once a man passed by the home of Sankichi the fox on a snowy night, and Sankichi hit his head very hard.
. kitsune densetsu 狐と伝説 fox legends .

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Ibaraki 牛久 Ushiku

. Ushiku 牛久 and Kappa legends .

. byooninda 病人田 / byooninbatake 病人畑 "sick field" .
and the temple 薬師寺 Yakushi-Ji

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Ibaraki 若柴町 Wakashiba town / 若芝宿 / 龍ケ崎市 Ryugasaki city

Mito Kaido 水戸海道 Sea road to Mito

. kitsune densetsu 狐と伝説 fox legends .
Once a man from 栗山村 Kuriyama village near Mount Tsukuba passed the postal station Wakashiba along the sea road to Mito, when a beautiful woman appeared.
He found this quite strange, but took the woman home and she became his wife. They had a child and when it was three years old, the woman was found out to be a fox and had to leave.
They say the descendants of this family still live nearby.

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- reference : nichibun yokai database -

. Edo, Tokyo　江戸 - 東京 - 伝説 Legends Index .

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Edo - the EDOPEDIA -

12/04/2019

Mito Kaido Highway

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