#32 Sun (7/23/22) - Tokaido Road

The Tokaido Road translates roughly as "eastern sea route" and was the main route connecting Edo and Kyoto.

Captain Sherard Osborn, who traveled part of the road in around 1858, noted that:

The social status of a person is indicated by the manner in which he travels. The daimyo and people of the upper class travel in norimono, which are roomy enough to allow of a fair amount of ease, and are comfortably furnished. The sides can be opened or closed at will, as a protection against the weather. The length of the pole proclaims the rank of the passenger; if a nobleman, a long pole borne by five or six men at each end; a person of lower rank, a shorter pole and only four carriers. If the occupant is a prince of the royal family, the pole rests on the palms of the hands, otherwise it is borne on the shoulders. Humble individuals have to be satisfied with a kago carried by two porters, which entails a very cramped position. In steep mountain regions everyone, whatever their rank, is obliged to use a kago.

The lords of the various manors are compelled by the authorities to maintain these places of refreshment for travellers; they are vastly superior to the caravanserais of the East, and relays of horses or porters are always ready at these post-houses, and must do all work at a regular fixed charge, ridiculously small according to English notions. Another and still more onerous duty falls on these establishments, and that is the responsibility of forwarding all Imperial dispatches between the two capitals, or from Yedo to any part of the Empire. Runners are consequently ever ready to execute this task.

The original Tōkaidō was made up of 53 stations between the termination points of Edo and Kyoto; taken from the 53 Buddhist saints that Buddhist acolyte Sudhana visited to receive teachings in his quest for enlightenment.

In 1613, William Adams and John Saris were some of the first Westerners to travel on the road. Saris found the quality of the road remarkable, and contrasted it with the poor state of roads back home; the sand and gravel surface was "wonderfull even" and "where it meeteth with mountains, passage is cut through". At roadside lodgings the group feasted upon rice and fish, with "pickeld herbes, beanes, raddishes and other roots" and an abundance "of cheese", which in reality was tofu. Although their passage was safe, Saris was disturbed by the crucified remains of criminals which lined the road at the approach of each town. At Shizuoka, they saw severed human heads upon a scaffold and many crucifixes "with the dead corpses of those which had been executed remaining still upon them". Remains littered the road and caused them "a most unsavourie passage".

From the wikipedia page on Tokaido.

 

 


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