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*''Other Names'': 日光御成道 ''(Nikkô onarimichi)'', 日光街道 ''(Nikkô kaidô)''
*''Japanese'': 日光道中 ''(Nikkô dôchû)''
The ''Nikkô Dôchû'', or Nikkô Highway, was a [[highways|highway]] connecting [[Edo]] with the [[Nikko Toshogu|Nikkô Tôshôgû]] shrine in the mountains to the north of the city. The 21 [[shukuba|post-stations]] along the highway were located roughly five kilometers apart on average. The various post-stations along the highway had 23 ''[[honjin]]'' and 29 ''waki-honjin'' in total.<ref>Gallery labels, Futagawa-juku honjin shiryôkan.[https://www.flickr.com/photos/toranosuke/31363644767/sizes/l/]</ref> In 1843 each station, had an average of 2,264 residents and 39 ''hatagoya''.<ref>Constantine Vaporis, "Linking the Realm: The Gokaidô Highway Network in Early Modern Japan," in Susan Alcock et al (eds.), ''Highways Byways and Road Systems in the Pre-Modern World'', Wiley-Blackwell (2012), 90-105.</ref>
Like a a number of other major highways of the realm, the Nikkô Highway officially began at [[Nihonbashi]] in Edo. It divided at [[Utsunomiya]] from the [[Oshu Kaido|Ôshû kaidô]], which then continued into the [[Tohoku|Tôhoku]] region.
While many ''[[honjin]]'' along the Tôkaidô and other highways saw elite guests tens or even hundreds of days out of the year, a number of the ''honjin'' along the Nikkô Road were dedicated to the service of the [[Gosanke]] Tokugawa families, and were only called upon to host these lords a few times a decade.<ref>Miyamoto Tsuneichi, ''Daimyô no tabi'' 大名の旅, Tokyo: Shakai shisô sha (1968), 43.</ref>
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==References==
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[[Category:Edo Period]]
[[Category:Geographic Locations]]