Kusatsu is the fifty-second station on the Tōkaidō, at the
south-eastern corner of Lake Biwa, the largest lake in Japan. Another
major road, the Nakasendō, which ran from Edo to Kyōto through
the mountains, joined the Tōkaidō here, forming a single road
the rest of the way to Kyōto. This made Kusatsu one of the busiest
stations on the Tōkaidō.
