What honjin means
A honjin was a house in an Edo-period post town designated to lodge or provide rest for daimyo travelling on alternate attendance, imperial envoys and shogunate officials. Aichi Prefecture explains that honjin were set up at post stations across the country after the alternate attendance system was established in 1635, used by daimyo, envoys and officials, with secondary inns called waki-honjin assisting them.
Honjin were usually kept by leading local families who served as village headmen, post-station officials or wholesalers. To receive a daimyo properly, they had a gate on the highway, a formal entrance with a Shikidai step, and reception rooms with a raised section. A waki-honjin, a secondary inn, was used when the honjin was occupied or for lower-ranking travellers, and houses used only for rest stops rather than overnight stays were called koyasumi honjin or okoyasumisho.
Reading the records
Buildings of honjin often carry the word in their names, and records describe their form and role. The front gate of the Tanaka family house, the Sukematsu honjin, in Izumiotsu, Osaka, is a three-bay gatehouse on the old Kishu highway with rooms for attendants, recorded as a rebuilding that follows the old form and presents a front befitting a honjin. The main house of the former Hashimoto honjin of the Ikenaga family in Hashimoto, Wakayama, is a hip-and-gable townhouse facing the highway and is regarded as the oldest dated townhouse in the prefecture. The main house of the Imai family, the Imai okoyasumi honjin, in Okaya, Nagano, belonged to a family of village headmen known for providing rest to the lord of Takashima on inspection tours and to daimyo on alternate attendance; its front has a projecting wing with a formal entrance.
Articles should distinguish honjin used for overnight stays from those used only for rest stops, following the role described in the record or local-government sources.
References
- 美濃路稲葉宿本陣跡ひろば｜愛知県公式観光サイト Aichi Now
- https://aichinow.pref.aichi.jp/spots/detail/3588/
- 田中家住宅表門｜国指定文化財等データベース（文化庁）
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00006687
- 旧橋本本陣池永家住宅主屋｜文化遺産オンライン
- https://bunka.nii.ac.jp/heritages/detail/147495
- 今井家住宅（今井御小休本陣）主屋｜国指定文化財等データベース（文化庁）
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00001381
Last verified: 2026.09.26