Toriimoto-juku
[file:Old medicine shop on the Nakasendo historic route at Torii-no-moto in Shiga prefecture.jpg|right|thumb|280px|Arikawa Akadama Jinkyokan in Toriimoto-juku (ICP)]
Toriimoto-juku was the sixty-third of the sixty-nine stations of the Nakasendō highway connecting Edo with Kyoto in Edo period Japan. It was located in the present-day city of Hikone, Shiga Prefecture, Japan, overlooking Lake Biwa.
History
Toriimoto-juku has a very long history, and was a market town in front of the gates of the Shinto shrine of Taga Taisha from the end of the Nara period onwards. It was located on the ancient Tōsandō highway connecting the capital of Heian-kyō with the provinces of eastern Japan and from the early Sengoku period was a popular stopping point for pilgrims. In the early Edo period, the system of post stations on the Nakasendō was formalized by the Tokugawa shogunate in 1602, and it was a stopping place for traveling merchants who originated from Ōmi Province. A noted local speciality was an herbal stomach medicine called Akadama Shinkyo-gan, which was effective against diarrhea and food poisoning. The medicine continued to be made today by the Arikawa Seiyaku Corporation in modern Toriimoto. Another traditional local speciality of Toriimoto-juku was the kappa, or straw raincoat, used by travelers on the highway. Stores selling kappa advertised with wooden kappa-shaped signboards.Toriimoto-juku was also the location where the Chōsenjin Kaidō branched off the Nakasendō. This sub-route was originally constructed by Oda Nobunaga to reach Azuchi Castle and ran close to the shore of Lake Biwa, bypassing three stations of the Nakasendō to rejoin the main route at Yasu village. It was so-named because it was the designated route for use by Korean envoys during the Joseon missions to Japan.
It was also on the sankin-kōtai route to-and-from the Shogun's court in Edo and was the favored stopping place for Kii Domain, Hiroshima Domain, Kurume Domain, Tokushima Domain, Matsue Domain, Hagi Domain, Tsuyama Domain and the Iyo-Matsuyama Domain. Per records kept by the Teramura family who owned the honjin, the number of guests for typical daimyō procession could be as many as 200 to 300 people, although come were much smaller. Between 1829 and 1841, the honjin recorded a total of 161 processions with a total of 3,594 individuals.
Per an 1843 the guidebook issued by the Inspector of Highways, the town had a population of 1448 people in 293 houses, including one honjin, two waki-honjin, and 35 hatago, and was thus this largest of the stations in Ōmi Province. Toriimot-juku is 465 kilometers from Edo and 55 kilometers from Kyoto.
Modern Toriimoto-juku
Even today, there are remnants of the former post town around. If you enter from the north, you pass by a pine colonnade that leads to the still-standing buildings with a lattice structures on sleeve walls that extends for about 2 kilometer.The two teahouses depicted in the Hiroshige print no longer exist, with Rinkodo burning to the ground in 1991. But the town has several old buildings, warehouses, inns and shops dating from 19th century. One of these buildings is the famous pharmacy Akadama-Jinkyokan where herbal medicines against several types of illness are prepared since the 17th century. The complex of buildings is known as at the Arikawa family residence, and five of its structures are protected as Important Cultural Properties.