Talk:69 Stations of the Nakasendō

Stations？

Why station? "Shukuba" is an "inn place" or "inn town", not a station. "Shuku" is an analog of "inn" in the West. --202.71.90.139 (talk) 08:20, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

I realize that "shukuba" literally translates to "inn place," but "post station" and "post town" are the most common and accepted English translations of the term. Specifically, "station" is used because because they are in a series and travelers stopped along them in much the same way trains stop in the modern towns and cities while traveling along the same route. Also, the towns contained more than just inns. A direct translation of the term would not be sufficient, as it does not convey the full meaning of what the area was.

If you have more questions about the term, the best place to raise this question would be on the talk page for the article Shukuba. On that page, you will see that shukuba were also called "shukueki" (宿駅). Though that term has fallen out of use, it helps explain the English translation of the term. Douggers (talk) 12:08, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

Thank you for your answer. I know about shukueki. But in Japanese all words like shukueki, shukuba, shukuba-machi are combined with idea of shuku that means "inn". In Europe we also had the system of small inn towns on the main roads, which was very simmilar to the system of medieval japanese shukuba. I realize that shukuba have got more facilities then just inns, but the later were probably the main in it. Any way, thank you for your reply!--202.71.90.139 (talk) 04:10, 20 May 2008 (UTC)

I'm not sure if they can be compared to inn towns along the roads of Europe, because I think the two things developed separately. I could be wrong, but it seems like the inn towns of Europe developed organically as people saw a need for inns along various routes, but the post stations of Japan were developed by government decree at specific locations. Douggers (talk) 04:32, 20 May 2008 (UTC)

The terms 'station' and 'stage' are the words most commonly used in English for tsugi and similar words, in text about the Tokaido, Kisokaido, etc (e.g. books about the many print series about the Tokaido done by Hiroshige). Noel (talk) 15:48, 28 February 2010 (UTC)