This rendered communications difficult, and travelers could be stranded at Ōta-juku potentially for days waiting for the waters to be calm enough to cross.

Ōta also within the territory of Owari Domain and was also a regional administrative center, responsible for policing, tax collection and management of local justice.

In 1861, Princess Kazunomiya, en route to Edo to marry Shogun Tokugawa Iemochi stayed at the waki-honjin at Ōta-juku.

Per the 1843 "中山道宿村大概帳" (Nakasendō Shukuson Taigaichō) guidebook issued by the Inspector of Highways (道中奉行, Dōchu-būgyō), the town had a population of 505 people in 108 houses, including one honjin, one waki-honjin, and 20 hatago.

An elderly couple, with pilgrim's staves and knapsack observe the scene, while two young men are seated on boulders waiting for the ferry to arrive.