are historic Japanese distance markers akin to

milestone A milestone is a numbered marker placed on a route such as a road, railway line, canal or boundary. They can indicate the distance to towns, cities, and other places or landmarks; or they can give their position on the route relative to so ...

s. Comprising a pair of earthen mounds (''tsuka'' or ''zuka'') covered in trees and flanking the road, they denoted the distance in '' ri'' () to Nihonbashi, the "Bridge of Japan", erected in Edo in 1603. ''Ichirizuka'' were encountered and described by

Engelbert Kaempfer Engelbert Kaempfer (16 September 16512 November 1716) was a German naturalist, physician, explorer and writer known for his tour of Russia, Persia, India, Southeast Asia, and Japan between 1683 and 1693. He wrote two books about his travels. ''A ...

, c.1690: "serving as a milestone are two hills, facing each other, which are raised up on both sides of the road, and planted with one or more trees.""Zu einem Meilenzeichen dienen zween gegen einander stehende Hugel, welche zu beiden Seiten des Weges aufge worfen und mit einem oder mehr Baumen bepflanzt sind" (''Geschichte und Beschreibung von Japan'')

Establishment

The

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia ...

established ''ichirizuka'' on the major roads in 1604, enabling calculation both of distance travelled and of the charge for transportation by

kago A is a type of litter used as a means of human transportation by the non-samurai class in feudal Japan and into the Meiji period The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era w ...

palanquin The litter is a class of wheelless vehicles, a type of human-powered transport, for the transport of people. Smaller litters may take the form of open chairs or beds carried by two or more carriers, some being enclosed for protection from the el ...

. These mounds, to be maintained by "post stations and local villages", were one component of the developing road infrastructure, which also included bridges and ferries; post stations (both shukuba, and the more informal ai no shuku); and tea-houses ( chaya). However, the main aim was "official mobility, not recreational travelling": the movement of farmers and women was discouraged, and a system of passports and maintained. By marking the distance from Edo rather than

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin, Keihanshin metropolitan area along wi ...

establishing a symbolic point of origin for all movements, the Tokugawa made of mile markers what they would later make of checkpoints: powerful reminders of the government's geopolitical ubiquity and efficacious tools in its appropriation of space.

''Ichirizuka'' were important enough to be found on the well-known "Proportional Map of the Tokaido" by printmaker

Hishikawa Moronobu Hishikawa Moronobu ( ja, 菱川師宣; 1618 – 25 July 1694) was a Japanese artist known for popularizing the ukiyo-e genre of woodblock prints and paintings in the late 17th century. He consolidated the works of scattered Japanese art s ...

(d. 1694). A traditional poem allegorically compares the ''ichirizuka'' that mark distance to the ''

Kadomatsu are traditional Japanese decorations made for the New Year's. They are a type of '' yorishiro'', or objects intended to welcome ancestral spirits or ''kami'' of the harvest. ''Kadomatsu'' are usually placed in pairs in front of homes and buil ...

'' marking the years of a person's life.

Survival

With the

modernization of Japan The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization b ...

in the

Meiji period The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...

, many of the mounds disappeared through road-widening and construction schemes, and the survival of both is now rare. Of ''ichirizuka'' that are still extant, sixteen have been designated for protection as national

Historic Sites History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

. Of the two within Tokyo, that at Nishigahara was once threatened by a road-widening project; a movement to save it led by industrialist

Shibusawa Eiichi was a Japanese industrialist widely known today as the "father of Japanese capitalism". He spearheaded the introduction of Western capitalism to Japan after the Meiji Restoration. He introduced many economic reforms including use of double- ...

, the "father of Japanese capitalism", is commemorated in a monument beside what is now . ()

Notes

References

{{Authority control Ichirizuka History of road transport

Establishment

Survival

See also

Notes

References