The three main roads in the Kantō region were called Kami no Michi (上の道) ("Upper Route"), Naka no Michi (中の道) ("Middle Route"), and Shimo no Michi (下の道) ("Lower Route"). Their course is well known because it's described in several medieval books. They ended at the Shinto gate (torii) at the entrance of Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū in Kamakura. Like the other routes, these roads were built to allow quick army movements from and to Kamakura and were of great importance during the many internal wars of the period. The Kami no Michi, in particular, was used by Nitta Yoshisada for his 1333 attack on Kamakura, and all the battlefields of that campaign (for example Kotesashigahara (小手差原) and Kumegawa (久米河), both in today's Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture, or Bubaigawara (分倍河原) in today's Fuchū) are therefore along its course. The Kamakura Kaidō/Ōkan network remained important during the Muromachi period (1336- 1573) because Kamakura continued to be essential to control the Kantō region, however, after the last Kantō kubō Ashikaga Shigeuji was driven out of Kamakura and established himself in Shimōsa Province, the Late Hōjō clan supremacy made Kantō's political and economic center move to Odawara. The final blow to the network was given by the Tokugawa, who in the 17th century made Edo their capital. With Kamakura's importance waning, the network fell in disrepair and in places disappeared. Even though they are described in several old texts like the Azuma Kagami, the Taiheiki, the Gukanshō and the Baishōron (梅松論) the three roads' exact courses aren't known with certainty, and their description can therefore vary considerably with the source. The following are considered the most likely.

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