was the sixty-first of the sixty-nine post stations on the Nakasendà Â, a highway connecting Edo (present-day Tokyo) and Kyoto during the Edo period of Japan. Located in what is now Maibara in Shiga Prefecture, the post town developed around the clear spring Isame no Shimizu and the Jizogawa River. Several Edo-period buildings and waterways survive, and the area forms part of the Japan Heritage listing âÂÂLake Biwa and its Waterside LandscapeâÂÂWater Heritage of Prayer and Life.âÂÂ
Samegai-juku has a long recorded history and is mentioned in both the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki (720) in connection with the legend of Yamato Takeru. It stood along the ancient Tà Âsandà  route linking the capital with the eastern provinces, and continued to appear in travel diaries and waka poetry through the Heian and Kamakura periods. Its abundant clear spring waterâÂÂespecially the source known as Isame no Shimizu (å± éÂÂã®渠水), which feeds the JizogawaâÂÂmade the settlement a favored resting place for travelers.
In 1602, the Tokugawa shogunate formalized the post station system on the Nakasendà Â, designating Samegai-juku as an official station. It became a stopping place for traveling merchants () from à Âmi Province and for western daimyà  processions on the sankin-kà Âtai route to and from the shogunâÂÂs court in Edo. The Jizogawa was navigable by small boats and barges for local transport of goods, and Samegai-juku had seven tonâÂÂya-ba (warehouses) along its banksâÂÂan unusually high number for a post town.
According to the 1843 guidebook compiled by the , the settlement had a population of 539 in 138 houses, including one honjin, one waki-honjin, and eleven hatago. The historic townscape developed along the Jizogawa with three main quarters: Shinmachi (east), Nakamachi (center, site of the honjin and waki-honjin), and Kozamegai (west). The western edge, known as Rokken jaya (âÂÂsix teahousesâÂÂ), served retainers traveling with daimyà  processions.
The prosperity of Samegai-juku declined after the Meiji Restoration (1868), when the Nakasendà  lost importance with the advent of modern rail transport.
Ten buildings from the Edo period survive today, giving visitors a sense of the post townâÂÂs original streetscape. The Samegai-juku Archives Museum occupies the former Samegai Post Office, a Meiji/Taishà Â-era pseudo-Western building that displays artifacts related to the townâÂÂs history. Together with neighboring Kashiwabara-juku and Banba-juku, Samegai preserves one of the most continuous Edo-period streetscapes along the Nakasendà Â.
In 2015, the area was designated a component of the Japan Heritage program under the title âÂÂLake Biwa and its Waterside LandscapeâÂÂWater Heritage of Prayer and Life.âÂÂ
The spring-fed Jizogawa still flows through the town, maintaining a constant temperature of about 14 ðC year-round. Its clear water has long supported everyday life through small washing places and fish pens, and the water channels (kawabata) remain a distinctive feature of the townscape. Aquatic plants such as baikamo (Ranunculus nipponicus) bloom in season.
Utagawa HiroshigeâÂÂs ukiyo-e print of Samegai-juku, produced between 1835 and 1838, centers on a large pine tree with the thatched roofs of the Rokken jaya in the background. Two samurai retainers, one bearing a spear, approach the buildings, while others carry loads up the slope behind them. A seated farmer smokes a pipe as the Hira Mountains rise in the distance, beyond which lies Lake Biwa.
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