Minakuchi-juku

right|thumb|260px|Modern Minakuchi-juku right|thumb|260px|Minakuchi-juku in 1923 was the fiftieth of the fifty-three stations of the Tōkaidō highway connecting Edo with Kyoto in Edo period Japan. It was located in the Minakuchi neighborhood of the present-day city of Kōka, Shiga Prefecture, Japan.

==History== Minakuchi-juku developed as early as the Muromachi period, as its location was convenient for travelers going to the Ise Grand Shrine and Ise Bay. In the early Edo period, the system of post stations on the Tōkaidō was formalized by the Tokugawa shogunate in 1601, Minakuchi-juku became an official post station. It was on the sankin-kōtai route by many western daimyō to-and-from the Shogun's court in Edo. Minakuchi Castle was constructed in 1634 on the western border of the town by Shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu as a way station where he could stay at during his travels between Edo and Kyoto. It was built in a similar fashion to Nijō Castle. Minakuchi was thus both a post station and a castle town, In 1682, Minakuchi Domain was created with a cadet branch of the Katō clan ruling until the Meiji restoration.