The Nikkō Kaidō (日光街道) was one of the
five routes of the
Edo period and it was built to connect
Edo (modern-day
Tokyo) with the temple-shrine complex of the Mangan-ji and Tōshōsha (now called the
Rinnō-ji and
Tōshōgū), which are located in the present-day city of
Nikkō,
Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. It was an ancient path that became formalised when power moved to Edo, and was established fully in 1617 by
Tokugawa Hidetada, to give safer access to the temple-shrine mausoleum of his father, the first shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, who was buried there that year.[1] With only twenty-one stations, the Nikkō Kaidō was the shortest of the five routes, and it shares seventeen stations with the
Ōshū Kaidō. Its route can be traced with Japan's
National Route 4 and
National Route 119.
Stations of the Nikkō Kaidō
The 21 stations of the Nikkō Kaidō are listed below in order and are divided by their modern-day prefecture. The present day municipality is listed afterwards in parentheses.