Kumagai-shuku

Kumagai-shuku (熊谷宿, Kumagai-shuku^?) was the eighth of the sixty-nine stations of the Nakasendō highway connecting Edo with Kyoto during the Edo period. It was located in the present-day city of Kuamagaya, Saitama Prefecture, Japan.

Kumagai-shuku began as a temple-town outside the Buddhist temple of Yūkoku-ji (熊谷寺^?), which dated from the Heian period. The kanji which make up the temple name can also be read as “Kumagaya” or “Kumagai”. Kumagaya Naozane was a noted Kamakura period samurai who served under Minamoto Yoritomo.

Kumagai-shuku became formalized as a post station on the Nakasendō under the Tokugawa shogunate in 1603. Per a 1843 guidebook issued by the Inspector of Highways (道中奉行, Dōchu-būgyō^?), the town has 1715 buildings, with a population of 3263, and boasted two honjin, one waki-honjin and 42 hatago

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