| 38th Station: Okazaki |
| History |
This district is well-known as the birth place of Tokugawa Ieyasu, a founder of Tokugawa (Edo) government. You might want to spend a whole day for sightseeing in this district. In fact, there are many histrical spots. There is Ieyasu lived in the Okazaki castle for 16 years: 6 years from the birth (1542) to 6yrs old when he was held as a hostage by Oda family, a famous sengoku-daimyo or feudal lord during the Japanese civil war period (He got captured on the way to Imagawa Yoshmoto (another famous sengoku daimyo)'s place-- he was supposed to be a Imagawa's hostage); and 10 years from when Imagawa Yoshimoto lost a famous war, Okehazama no kassen against Oda Nobunaga in 1560 to when Ieyasu moved to Hamamatsu castle. After Ieyasu moved to Hamamatsu, his son, Nobuyasu became a master of the castle. Okazaki was very important place to control Tokaido during the Edo period and fudai daimyo or a damyo who was a hereditary vassal of of the shogun, was assigned as a master of the castle for defensive purposes. The original castle was ruined, but it was reconstructed in 1959 and became a museum.
Okazaki is also famous for haccho miso, a kind of fermented soy bean paste. Its history is quite long--it is said that hachho miso began to be produced in the Muromachi period (1333-1573).
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| Fujikawa |
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| Chiryu |
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| Tokaido route |