Warabi-shuku
History. Warabi was originally built up as a castle town during the Muromachi period for the Shibukawa clan. Under the Tokugawa shogunate of the Edo period, Warabi-shuku became a post town on the Nakasendō from 1612. Per an 1843 guidebook issued by the , the town stretched for about 1.1 kilometers along the highway, with a population of 2223 (1138 men, 1085 women) in 430 houses, and boasted two "honjin", one "waki-honjin," one "tonya" and 23 "hatago". Until the late Edo period, Warabi-shuku was infamous for its aggressive "meshimori onna" and numerous "chaya". Warabi-shuku was  approximately 4 "ri", 28-"chō" (18.8 kilometers) from the starting point of the Nakasendō at Nihonbashi, which was the approximate distance the average traveler could walk in half a day. However, the station was separated from neighboring Itabashi-shuku by the Arakawa River. The river formed an outer line of defense for Edo, and therefore the Tokugawa shogunate forbid the erection of any bridges as a defensive measure. The modern city of Warabi has preserved the gate and part of one of the "honjin" as a museum. Warabi-shuku in "The Sixty-nine Stations of the Kiso Kaidō". Keisai Eisen's  ukiyo-e print of Warabi-shuku dates from 1835–1838, and depicts the ferry crossing the Arakawa River at dusk. On the small boat are a pair of itinerant blind women musicians with "shamisen", a man and his horse, and a porter sitting smoking in the bow. The boatman propels the boat with a rear oar, while on the far bank more travelled await the arrival of the ferry.