Tomoe Gozen, the woman warrior of The Tale of the Heike, rode with Kiso Yoshinaka from the Kiso Valley through Kurikara Pass and the Uji River to the battle of Awazu, near Gichū-ji temple in Ōtsu.
The route follows her legend from Shinano to Yoshinaka's last stand in 1184, then to the places that claim her afterlife as a nun. Her later life is uncertain, so the last stops rest on temple and local tradition.
The Nakasendō is the old "Central Mountain Route" between Edo and Kyoto, and its best-known stretch runs through the Kiso Valley, from Narai-juku to Tsumago and Magome in Nagano and Gifu.
This route follows six stops west along the Kisoji, the valley road that became part of the Nakasendō: the highest post town, a checkpoint, a town rebuilt after a flood, and two villages restored so well that you can still walk the road between them. Station numbers are counted from Edo.
