Tumago-juku
Tsumago-juku was the forty-second of the sixty-nine post towns on the Nakasendo (Central Mountain Route) in Nagano prefecture.
The Nakasendo was one of the five routes of the Edo era (1603-1868), and one of the two that connected Edo (Tokyo) to Kyoto in Japan.
Tsumago-juku attracted many people since early times as an important traffic point where the Nakasendo and the Ina-kaido cross. Ahead of other areas in the nation, residents in the town took a lead in the preservation of its townscape.
To protect it, they established the three principles of “not selling, no renting, and no demolishing houses and land.” While living here, they keep preserving a valuable heritage of "the townscape of the Edo era."
