Kazunomiya Travels from Kyoto to Edo

The shogunate arranged Kazunomiya’s journey after securing court approval for her marriage to Tokugawa Iemochi. She had already been betrothed to Prince Arisugawa Taruhito and initially opposed the match. Emperor Kōmei accepted it conditionally, expecting the shogunate to address foreign treaties and expulsion.

The Nakasendō route was settled in 1861. Officials published an itinerary and assigned domains to guard its stages. Court attendants, the shogunate’s reception party and hired carriers passed through a succession of post stations, making the alliance a substantial transport operation before the wedding in 1862.

At Nakatsugawa, a surviving diagram records the porters’ accommodation: enclosed open ground without roofs, crowded with people, baggage and cooking space. Rain during the overnight stop brought hardship and illness. Those arrangements show whose labor supported the ceremonial journey. Kazunomiya reached Edo, but the marriage’s completion did not fulfill the court’s demand to end foreign trade.