was the forty-eighth of the sixty-nine stations

69 Stations of the Nakasendo

The are the rest areas along the Nakasendō, which ran from Nihonbashi in Edo to Sanjō Ōhashi in Kyoto. The route stretched approximately and was an alternate trade route to the Tōkaidō.-Stations of the Nakasendō:...

 of the Nakasendō

Nakasendo

The , also called the , was one of the five routes of the Edo period, and one of the two that connected Edo to Kyoto in Japan. There were 69 stations between Edo and Kyoto, crossing through Musashi, Kōzuke, Shinano, Mino and Ōmi provinces...

 during the Edo period

Edo period

The , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....

 and it is located in the present-day city of Mizunami

Mizunami, Gifu

is a city located in the Tōnō region of Gifu, Japan.As of July 2011, the city has an estimated population of 40,030. The total area is 175.00 km².The city was founded on April 1, 1954....

, Gifu Prefecture

Gifu Prefecture

is a prefecture located in the Chūbu region of central Japan. Its capital is the city of Gifu.Located in the center of Japan, it has long played an important part as the crossroads of Japan, connecting the east to the west through such routes as the Nakasendō...

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

.

History

Located in the Owari clan's domain, Hosokute-juku was established as a mountaintop post town in 1610. The route between the two neighboring post towns, Ōkute-juku

Okute-juku

was the forty-seventh of the sixty-nine stations of the Nakasendō during the Edo period. This is the first station along the Nakasendō to be in the domain of the Owari Clan, one of the most powerful regional clans. It is located in the present-day city of Mizunami, Gifu Prefecture, Japan...

 and Mitake-juku

Mitake-juku

was the forty-ninth of the sixty-nine stations of the Nakasendō. It is located in the present-day town of Mitake, Ena District, Gifu Prefecture, Japan.-History:...

, was long and difficult, so the town was built up as a resting point between the two places. It contains the family temple of the Toki clan

Toki clan

The was a powerful clan that ruled in Japan from the Kamakura period to the Edo period. It descended from Emperor Seiwa by Minamoto no Yorimitsu from the Minamoto clan and used Toki in Mino Province as their hometown...

, Mino Province

Mino Province

, one of the old provinces of Japan, encompassed part of modern-day Gifu Prefecture. It was sometimes called . Mino Province bordered Echizen, Hida, Ise, Mikawa, Ōmi, Owari, and Shinano Provinces....

's guardian.