Chiryū-juku

It was the westernmost post town in Mikawa Province, and was 330 kilometres (210 mi) from Nihonbashi, the start of the Tōkaidō, so it took approximately 10 days to for average travellers to reach.

Chiryū-juku was noted for a famed Shinto shrine, the Chiryū Daimyōjin, and also for its flourishing horse market, held in late April to early May of each year.

Tokugawa Ieyasu ordered that the post station plant pine trees along through route of the highway before and after the town.

The classic ukiyo-e print by Andō Hiroshige (Hōeidō edition) from 1831 to 1834 depicts horses, and also one of the pine trees.

[1] Despite the construction of railroads following the Meiji restoration the horse market continued into the Shōwa period, and most of the pine trees survived until the 1959 Isewan Typhoon.