1699, the two main players of the Akō incident, Kira Yoshinaka and Asano Naganori stayed at the same honjin but only nine days apart. This was three years before the famous vendetta. Kira Yoshinaka had stayed at the honjin on several occasions (the last of which was in 1701) as his official duties required him to visit Kyoto or the Ise Grand Shrine on occasion. However, the building where they stayed was destroyed in a fire which swept through Kusatsu-juku in 1718, and the current buildings were constructed shortly after that disaster. Another crisis occurred in 1839, when Shimazu Tadayuki, daimyō of Sadowara Domain died of illness at the Tanaka Shichizaemon Honjin while on sankin-kōtai. As he had no heir, this placed the domain in imminent danger of attainder, and Tanaka Shichizaemon assisted the Shimazu clan in concealing the death from officials of the Tokugawa shogunate for over two months, claiming that the daimyō was simply resting. In 1861, Priness Kazu-no-miya had breakfast at the honjin while en route to Edo to marry Shogun Tokugawa Iemochi and in September 1868, Emperor Meiji stopped for lunch at the honjin en route to Tokyo, but neither spend the night. The honjin was closed in 1870. From July 1947, it was used as a local community center. In April 1996, it was reopened to the public as a museum. It is located about a ten-minute walk from Kusatsu Station on the JR West Biwako Line. Kusatsu-juku in The Sixty-nine Stations of the Kiso Kaidō Utagawa Hiroshige's ukiyo-e print of Kusatsu-juku dates from 1835 -1838. The print depicts a woman crossing a narrow wooden footbridge across the Kusatsu River, depicted here as little more than a small creek. He is a local resident, as she has a rolled up parasol in one hand and a furoshiki in the other, indicating that she is on a social call. Heading in the opposite direct behind her are three women in traveling attire, with a child wood gathering trailing behind them. A large lantern marks the entrance to the post station, whose tiled roofs are visible. In the background is the mass of Mount Hiei. Kusatsu-juku in The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō Utagawa Hiroshige's ukiyo-e Hōeidō edition print of Kusatsu-juku dates from 1833 -1834. The print depicts a busy scene within the post station itself in front of the open-fronted tea house in which many patrons