Kusatsu-Juku Honjin, Former elite accommodation at Kusatsu-juku road station, Japan
Kusatsu-Juku Honjin is a former inn at a post station positioned where two major trade routes met during the Edo period. The building contains original rooms, guest registers, and objects from the era of travel along these routes, showing how important travelers were accommodated.
The Tanaka Shichizaemon family began managing this accommodation in 1635 and maintained it for more than 200 years, serving high-ranking officials and nobility traveling between regions. This long period of operation reflects its importance as a reliable stopping point on the busiest routes in the country.
The rooms reveal how guests were treated differently based on their rank and status through spatial arrangement and decor. Walking through the spaces makes clear the strict social customs that governed accommodations during the Edo period.
This location is about a ten-minute walk from the nearest train station and is therefore easy to reach. The exhibition inside offers enough to see to make a visit of one to two hours worthwhile.
The property was enclosed with walls and had separate entrances for different types of travelers. The architecture itself shows how the physical separation of guests by rank was actually put into practice.
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