Kumagawa-Juku

Kumagawa-Juku is a town located in Fukui Prefecture, Wakasa, Japan. During the Sengoku period, it was a village located in the Onyu Pass in the Wakasa province.

History[edit | edit source]

In 1582, the Igan shinobi and Kakushiba ikki member Fujibayashi Naoe arrived at the village to meet with Rokkaku Katsuhime and her friends. Upon her arrival, she met up Katsuhime as they came across the scene of a violent kidnapping of the wife and son of her fallen mentor Sugitani Zenjūbō. After investigating the scene, they followed a trail of a struggle to a house and found pirates having bounded Sada and her son. Defeating the pirates, Naoe and Katsuhime set Sada and her son free as Sada informed them that her husband's teppō was stolen and taken to Ōmizo Castle. With this, Katsuhime set out to retake the teppō as Naoe offered to accompany her, to which she agreed.^[1]

At some point, Naoe and fellow Kakushiba ikki member Yasuke established a kakurega whilst in the village.^[2] Located between Kyoto and Wakasa Bay, it was officially founded by Asano Nagamasa in 1589 due to its location between both Wakasa and Ōmi on the Saba kaidō, also known as the "mackerel road."^[3]