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Excerpt of Map

I am looking for the reading/meaning of the kanji shown in the attached image. It should spell 上御道田, if I am not mistaken. The image is an excerpt of an old map of Achimura, Nagano-ken. I tried googling for it, but all I could find so far is this.

Does anyone have any clues? Or maybe can point me to a place where I could look further?

Thank you in advance!

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  • 2
    Could you post a larger piece of the map? Ie. with more content.
    – macraf
    Oct 22, 2015 at 21:33
  • This is all that shows up when googling the exact phrase...
    – Blavius
    Oct 23, 2015 at 1:46

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The page you linked clearly says 上御道 is read as うえみどう (Ue-midō). The page also says 上御道 was a small area located somewhere in 駒場 (Komaba) district.

Currently Achi village doesn't have a district name related to 御道 or 上御道 (zip codes of Ochi). I checked Googleマップ and 地理院地図, but found nothing relevant.

田 means "rice field", and is either read as den (in on-yomi) or ta (in kun-yomi). So 上御道田 (probably Ue-midō den) means "the rice field in 上御道".

Historically, there was a 宿場【しゅくば】 (post station) of 三州街道 (Sanshū highway, current Route 153) in 駒場. So my speculation is that this 御道 (Midō, lit. "the (great) road") probably refers to Sanshū highway. 上 (Ue) is a kind of prefix which means "up", "high" etc. Is this 上御道田 located somewhere along 三州街道?

That's all what I could gather on the net, but the page you linked is a part of this site, which is full of information on the history of Achi. If you really want to be sure, probably the author of this site is the best person to ask.

EDIT: Looks like うえみどう (Uemidō) was a small area located around here, and it was also written in kanji as 上見堂 or 上御堂 (堂 = small shrine, or hokora). The name 上御堂 appears in the official history book of Achi Village, 阿智村誌. Anyway, ateji was very common in those days, so うえみどう might not necessarily refer to Sanshū highway.

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  • Is 田 often read as デン in 地名? Can't say I've seen it much, if ever.
    – istrasci
    Oct 23, 2015 at 19:23
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    @istrasci In 人名 and 地名 it's usually た/だ (藤田、本田、山田、秋田、...). But if it's a compound word that actually refers to a kind of rice field, then it's usually read as ～でん (水田、新田、駅田...)
    – naruto
    Oct 23, 2015 at 20:07
  • Sorry for the late reply, and thank you for your help! The marked place is indeed close to 三州街道 or rather, it was a place, until 三州街道 was built through it. If there is still interest, I can post the full map, I refrained from doing so for copyright reasons. It's a map out of a book I am translating atm. I am not yet sure if I will put down 'the rice field at Uemidō' or if I should write "the rice field at the upper small shrine'. Again, you have helped me quite a lot, thank you very much!
    – Imi
    Oct 28, 2015 at 17:11

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