Toba-kaido Road (鳥羽街道)
The Toba-kaido Road extends from the Rajomon-ato (remains of Rajomon gate) (the Minami Ward, Kyoto City) to Yodo (the Fushimi Ward, Kyoto City) via Shimotoba. It was also called Kyo-kaido Road or Osaka-kaido Road, because it was connected to a road running from Yodo to Osaka.
History
It originates from the Toba-Tsukuri-michi of Heiankyo, which was built directly south of the Rajomon Gate--an entrance into Heiankyo-- under a road plan for developing Heiankyo..
For reference, Koganawate was a road that ran directly southwest from Kogamori-no-miya of the Toba-Tsukuri-michi to Yamazaki.
The Toba-Tsukuri-michi, which linked the Kusatsu Minato port of Katsura River (Yodo-gawa water system) and Noso, the shore of Ogura-ike Pond provided a connection between water traffic routes. The name of Noso is said to come from the shore that served as a warehouse of goods to be transported to Kyoto.
Also it is adjacent to the Kamo-gawa River (Yodo-gawa water system) and the Katsura River. The initially straight road gradually came to become winded over time as the course of these rivers greatly changed.
Hideyoshi TOYOTOMI, when he built Fushimi-jo Castle, established the traffic system by building a bank around the Ogura-ike, and at this time he built the left bank along the Katsura-gawa River between Shimotoba and Noso to open the route for the present-day Toba-kaido Road.
He also opened a road to Osaka; it merged in Noso with the road by the Yodo-tsutsumi bank (Bunrokutei Bank) and continued from Fushimi, crossed the Uji-gawa River (Yodo-kobashi Bridge), passed near the Yodo-jo Castle, crossed the Kizu-gawa River (Kyoto Prefecture) (Yodo-obashi Bridge), and ran along the left bank of the Yodo-gawa River until it reached Osaka.
During the Edo period it was thereby called 'Kyo-kaido,' because its final destination being Kyoto, or called 'Osaka-kaido' because it lead to Osaka. Like Sanjo-dori Street, the Tokaido and Takeda-kaido Road, the road was paved with Kuruma-ishi stones for the transportation of goods.
In 1868 of the late Edo period a conflict that occurred between the new government army and the Bakufu-gun (Shogunate army) around Koeda-bashi Bridge along the Toba-kaido Road triggered the Battle of Toba and Fushimi, turning the areas along the road into battle fields.
During modern times, in 1933 the Old Keihan-kokudo National Road (Kyoto-Moriguchi-sen, Kyoto Fudo 13 Go and Osaka Fudo 13 Go (Kyoto/Osaka Prefectural Road 13)), which ran parallel to the Toba-kaido Road, was completed, and it turned into a primary highway between Kyoto and Osaka. The construction of the present Hirakata Bypass, a bypass of National Highway Route No. 1 (Keihan-kokudo National Road) started in 1958 and completed in 1966.
Route and areas along the road
Running south from the Rajomon Gate, the road crosses the Kamo-gawa River (the Yodo-gawa water system) in Shimotoba (near the present Kyoto Minami Interchange) and runs along the bank of Kamogawa River (merged with the Katsuragawa River along the way) to the Noso Crossing in Yodo (the Fushimi Ward, Kyoto City). It covers present-day Senbon-dori Street (south of the Kujo-dori Street).
The remains of Toba Rikyu (Toba Detached Palace) is on east side of Koeda-bashi Bridge. Toba Rikyu, which was built by the Retired Emperor Shirakawa in the 11th century, was the place of his cloister government. Standing next to it was Jonangu and was its Chinju-sha shrine (Shinto shrine on Buddhist temple grounds dedicated to the tutelary deity of the area) which was built around the same time.