was the twenty-seventh 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...

 (an historical major road). It is located in the present-day town of Nagawa

Nagawa, Nagano

is a town located in Chiisagata District, Nagano Prefecture, Japan.The town was founded on October 1, 2005 when the town of Nagato and the village of Wada from Chiisagata District merged....

, in the Chiisagata District

Chiisagata District, Nagano

Chiisagata is a district located in Nagano Prefecture, Japan.As of February 1, 2006, the district has an estimated population of 12,039...

 of Nagano Prefecture

Nagano Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of the island of Honshū. The capital is the city of Nagano.- History :Nagano was formerly known as the province of Shinano...

, 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 between the Wada Pass and the Kasadori Pass, two difficult parts along 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...

, Nagakubo flourished as a post down 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....

. As the town developed, its row houses eventually spread to side streets, giving it the rare shape of a key. At its most prosperous time, there were over 45 inns in which travelers could rest, making it a rather large post town.