Matsumoto Kaidō

The road was a steep mountain trail following the Himekawa River Valley, about 120 km in length, and has been in existence since very ancient times, as evidenced by Jōmon period jade beads and jadeite stone axes produced in the Itoigawa area found at archaeological sites in the Kantō region of Japan. The road was used for the transport of salt and preserved seafood from the Sea of Japan to inland regions, and for the export of soybeans, tobacco, herbal medicines, cotton, hemp and livestock from Shinano and the Kantō region. The standard method of travel was by foot, as wheeled carts were almost nonexistent and the road was too steep in most places. The route was also frequently closed due to heavy snowfall, avalanches, landslides, and flooding.

Salt was a critical commodity in pre-modern Japan, and the Sengoku period warlord Uesugi Kenshin was famous for abolishing taxes and salt and allowing it to be exported to his enemy, Takada Shingen, both as a gesture of magnanimity and also to remove a possible casus belli. During the Edo period, no daimyō processions used the route for sankin-kōtai, so no formal system of post stations with honjin were established. However, there were numerous checkpoints where domain officials examined travel permits and cargos, levied taxes and at which they were small shops whose exorbitant prices and lack of goods was a perennial complaint by travellers.

After the start of the Meiji period, the opening of the Shin'etsu Main Line and the Ōito Line railways, and later Japan National Route 147 / Japan National Route 148 eliminated the need for this road, and it fell into complete ruin. In the year 2002, a well-preserved 20-kilometer section of the original path in the city of Itoigawa was designated a National Historic Site of Japan, and an additional 10-kilometer section was added in 2007.[1]

• Edo Five Routes