Tokaido Walk(6) Fujisawa-Chigasaki (off Tokyo)： Feb 27, 2011

I re-started my Tokaido walk after a winter pause (of about 2 months). It was my first Tokaido walk this year.

I walked from Fujisawa to Chigasaki in Kanagawa Prefecture.

Old Tokaido has converted into National Route 1 around Fujisawa.
Shops and houses stand along the road. Some houses are built in traditional style.



JR Tokaido railway runs south of old Tokaido route. The seaside was quite near from Tokaido in the Edo period. But it is several kilometers from the route now (as new lands have been developed after the Meiji period).

A historical road (Oyama road) to Oyama Shrine branches off from Tokaido in Hiratsuka City, about 4 kilometers west from Fujisawa). The shrine was built on Mt. Oyama.

Visiting Oyama was popular among Edo residents in the Edo era. People walked Tokaido westward from Edo, and turned north here to Oyama. It is 20- 30 kilometers from the shrine, but its gate has been built here.





I walked in Chigasaki City.

Pine trees remain along the road here. Many trees are more than several hundred year old and some of them are 2 meter round.

The scene of Tokaido and pine trees at Chigasaki was drawn in Ukiyoe by Ando Hiroshige, a leading Ukiyoe painter in the Edo Period. I felt historical feeling.