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Sakashita-juku (坂下宿, Sakashita-juku) was the forty-eighth of the fifty-three stations (shukuba) of the Tōkaidō. It is located in former Ise Province in what is now part of the city of Kameyama, Mie Prefecture, Japan.
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History
Sakashita flourished as a post town during the Edo period because of its location at the entrance to Suzuka Pass (鈴鹿峠, Suzuka Tōge) connecting Ise Province to former Omi Province. However, the Suzuka Pass was also the reason for the post town's decline in the Meiji period; the pass was too steep for rail lines to be laid, so the rail went through Tsuge Station (present-day Iga), bypassing the formerly flourishing town.
Today, there are only a few private residences left at the site of the former post station, as well as very little historical architecture. The only thing that marks the former site is a stone marker built by the former town of Seki, now part of the city of Kameyama.
The classic ukiyoe print by Ando Hiroshige (Hoeido edition) from 1831-1834 does not depicts the post station at all, but instead shows an open teahouse, looking across a ravine to the blue heights of the Suzuka Mountains.