Kumagai-shuku
Kumagai-shuku was the eighth of the sixty-nine stations of the Nakasendō highway connecting Edo with Kyoto during the Edo period. It was located in the present-day city of Kumagaya, Saitama Prefecture, Japan.
History
Kumagai-shuku began as a temple-town outside the Buddhist temple of Yūkoku-ji, which dated from the Heian period. The kanji which make up the temple name can also be read as Kumagaya or Kumagai. Kumagaya Naozane was a noted Kamakura period samurai who served under Minamoto no Yoritomo.Kumagai-shuku became formalized as a post station on the Nakasendō under the Tokugawa shogunate in 1603. Per an 1843 guidebook issued by the Inspector of Highways, the town has 1715 buildings, with a population of 3263, and boasted two honjin, one waki-honjin and 42 hatago
From the Meiji period, the area around Kumagai-shuku flourished as a producer of barley and silk.
Kumagai was 16.4 kilometers from Kōnosu-shuku and due to the distance an ai no shuku, Fukiage-shuku was located in-between the two stations. However, many travelers preferred to travel on to Fukaya-shuku for the night, as it was famous for its large number of Meshimori onna and numerous chaya, whereas the previous station, Kumagai-shuku had neither.
Most of what remained of Kumagai-shuku was destroyed by in the Bombing of Kumagaya in World War II. The site of one of the honjin is commemorated by a stone monument.