The location of Shinano Province within Japan.

Shio no Michi (塩の道, Salt Road) was an old kaidō, or road, in ancient Japan and was used to transport salt from the ocean to the inland central Honshū. In the Middle Ages, salt was brought both from the Sea of Japan and the Pacific Ocean to Shinano Province for processing. The road leading from the Sea of Japan to Shinano Province was called the Chikuni Kaidō (千国街道), whereas the road leading from the Pacific Ocean was called the Sanshū Kaidō (三州街道).^[1]

Stations of the Chikuni Kaidō

On the Echigo Province side of the route, it was called the Itoigawa Kaidō, but on the Shinano Province side, it was called Chikuni Kaidō. The Sawado-juku and Sano-juku pair and the Ida-juku and Imori-juku pair each essentially functioned as one post station.

Stations of the Sanshū Kaidō

Okazaki-juku in the 1830s, as depicted by Hiroshige in The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō

Keisai Eisen's print of Shiojiri-shuku, part of The Sixty-nine Stations of the Kiso Kaidō series

The salt was initially carried from Mikawa Bay by boats traveling up the Yahagi River and its tributary, the Tomoe River. From Toyota, it was carried by horse, marking the start of the Sanshū Kaidō.

See also

• Kaidō
• Edo Five Routes

References