The is a historic Japanese distance marker akin to a

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 ...

, comprising a pair of earthen mounds located in what is now

Itabashi, Tokyo is a special ward located in Tokyo Metropolis Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its m ...

in the

Kantō region The is a geographical area of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. In a common definition, the region includes the Greater Tokyo Area and encompasses seven prefectures: Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Tokyo, Chiba and Kanagawa. Slight ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. It was designated a National Historic Site of Japan in 1922, with the designation expanded in 1935.

Overview

During the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...

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 major roads, 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 was ...

'' or

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, denoted the distance in '' ri'' () to

Nihonbashi is a business district of Chūō, Tokyo, Japan which grew up around the bridge of the same name which has linked two sides of the Nihonbashi River at this site since the 17th century. The first wooden bridge was completed in 1603. The current ...

, the "Bridge of Japan", erected in

Edo Edo ( ja, , , "bay-entrance" or "estuary"), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a ''jōkamachi'' (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the ''de facto'' capital of ...

in 1603. Since 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 ...

, most of the ''ichirizuka'' have disappeared, having been destroyed by then elements, modern highway construction and urban encroachment. In 1876, the "Ichirizuka Abolition" decree was issued by the

Meiji government The was the government that was formed by politicians of the Satsuma Domain and Chōshū Domain in the 1860s. The Meiji government was the early government of the Empire of Japan. Politicians of the Meiji government were known as the Meiji o ...

and many were demolished at that time. Currently, 17 surviving ''ichirizuka'' are designated as national historic sites. The Shimura ''ishirizuka'' were the third on the

Nakasendō The , also called the ,Richard Lane, ''Images from the Floating World'' (1978) Chartwell, Secaucus ; pg. 285 was one of the five routes of the Edo period, and one of the two that connected Edo (modern-day Tokyo) to Kyoto in Japan. There were 6 ...

highway. They are located just outside of

Itabashi-juku was the first of the sixty-nine stations of the Nakasendō.Itabashi-shuku
. Rekishi no Ashiato. Accessed Jul ...

, the first post station on that route, and were constructed by order of

Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, which ruled Japan from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was one of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga and fellow ...

in 1604. The mounds each occupy an area of three by three meters, with a height of one meter, and are planted with ''enoki'' trees. The mounds are located on what is now

Japan National Route 17 is a highway on the island of Honshu in Japan. It originates at Nihonbashi in Chūō, Tokyo, and terminates in the city of Niigata (the capital of Niigata Prefecture), where it meets National Routes 7, 8, 49, 113 and 116). National Route 17 ...

. and when the road was widened in 1933, the mounds were preserved by their location, which was slightly wider apart than was the norm. The site is a short walk from

Shimura-sakaue Station is a metro station on the Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Transportation, Toei Mita Line in Itabashi, Tokyo, Japan. Lines *Toei Mita Line (I-21) Platforms The station consists of two side platforms. History

The station opened on 27 December ...

on the

Toei Mita Line The is a subway line of the Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Transportation (Toei) network in Tokyo, Japan. The line runs between Nishi-Takashimadaira in Itabashi and Meguro in Shinagawa. Trains continue with direct service into the Meguro Line ...

References

External links

Itabashi Ward official site

{{in lang, ja Edo period Itabashi Historic Sites of Japan History of Tokyo Ichirizuka

Overview

See also

References

External links