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The Ōshū Kaidō (奥州街道) was one of the five routes of the Edo period and it was built to connect Edo (modern-day Tokyo) with Mutsu Province and the present-day city of Shirakawa, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. It was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu for government officials traveling through the area.
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Subroutes
In addition to the established use of traveling from Edo to Mutsu Province, there were also many roads that connected from the Ōshū Kaidō. One such sub-route was the Sendaidō (仙台道), which connected Mutsu Province with Sendai. The terminus for the Sendaidō is in Aoba-ku in modern Sendai. From there, the Matsumaedō (松前道) connected Sendai with Hakodate, Hokkaidō. Though the Ōshū Kaidō has only 27 post stations, there were over 100 designated post stations when the subroutes are included.
Travel
In the early Edo period, travel along the road mostly consisted of magistrates heading towards Edo in order to take part in sankin kōtai. After Hakodate's development, the late Edo period saw travel further increase as a result of increasing trade with Russia.
Nowadays, the pather of the Ōshū Kaidō is followed by National Route 4, which runs parallel to the Tōhoku Expressway and the Hachinohe Expressway.
Stations of the Ōshū Kaidō
The 27 stations of the Ōshū Kaidō are listed below in order and are divided by their modern-day prefecture. The first seventeen stations are shared with the Nikkō Kaidō. The present day municipality is listed afterwards in parentheses.