Tōkaidō (road)

The , which roughly means "eastern sea route," was the most important of the Five Routes of the Edo period in Japan, connecting Kyoto to Edo (modern-day Tokyo). Unlike the inland and less heavily travelled Nakasendō, the Tōkaidō travelled along the sea coast of eastern Honshū, hence the route's name.

Traveling the Tōkaidō

The standard method of travel was on foot, as wheeled carts were almost nonexistent and heavy cargo was usually sent by boat. Members of the higher class, however, travelled by ''kago''. Women were forbidden to travel alone and had to be accompanied by men. Other restrictions were also put in place for travellers, but, while severe penalties existed for various travel regulations, most seem not to have been enforced. Captain Sherard Osborn, who travelled part of the road in around 1858, noted that:

Along the Tōkaidō, there were government-sanctioned post stations (shukuba) for travellers' rest. These stations consisted of porter stations and horse stables, as well as lodging, food and other places a traveller may visit. The original Tōkaidō was made up of 53 stations between the termination points of Edo and Kyoto. The 53 stations were taken from the 53 Buddhist saints that Buddhist acolyte Sudhana visited to receive teachings in his quest for enlightenment. The route passed through several provinces, each administered by a daimyō, the borders of whose regions were clearly delineated. At numerous checkpoints set up by the government, travellers had to present travelling permits in order to pass onward.

There were almost no bridges over the larger, fast-flowing rivers, forcing travelers to be ferried across by boat or be carried by watermen porters. Additionally, at one point in Nagoya the road was barred by several rivers and voyagers had to take a boat across the sea for to reach Kuwana station. These water crossings were a potential source of delay: In ideal weather the entire Tōkaidō journey on foot could be made in about a week, but if conditions were bad a trip might take up to a month.

In 1613, William Adams and John Saris accompanied by ten other Englishmen, 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".

The Tōkaidō in art and literature

Travel, particularly along the Tōkaidō, was a very popular topic in art and literature at the time. A great many guidebooks of famous places were published and distributed at this time, and a culture of virtual tourism through books and pictures thrived. Jippensha Ikku's ''Tōkaidōchū Hizakurige'', translated as "The Shank's Mare", is one of the more famous novels about a journey along the Tōkaidō.

The artist Hiroshige depicted each of the 53 Stations of the Tōkaidō (''shukuba'') in his work ''The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō'', and the haiku poet Matsuo Bashō travelled along the road. The ''Tōkaidō gojūsan tsui'' (''Fifty-Three Pairings along the Tōkaidō Road)'', created in 1845, is one of the most well-known and fascinating examples of woodblock prints inspired by the road. Japan's three leading print designers of the nineteenth century—Kuniyoshi, Hiroshige, and Kunisada—paired each Tōkaidō rest station with an intriguing, cryptic design.

Due to the harsh and punitive Tenpō-era reforms which attempted to impose a strictly defined morality, prints of celebrity actors, courtesans, and entertainers were outlawed during this time. Crafted to outwit the artistic restrictions imposed by the reforms, the woodcuts in the Parallel Series became popular visual puzzles that were frequently reproduced. Because of the ingenious approach to the Tōkaidō theme, the ''Tōkaidō gojūsan tsui'' has been praised as one of the most innovative and important works from the late Edo period. Its three designers followed their individual interests and strengths, and yet shared a common composition—dominant figures against distant landscapes. They used a variety of motifs, including stories from kabuki theater, poetry, famous tales, legends, landmarks, and local specialties.

In the early 1980s, inspired by Hiroshige, American artist Bill Zacha travelled the Tokaido stations. He created a series of 55 serigraphs, each depicting one stop along the Tokaido way, and printed 100 copies of each design. These were collected in the 1985 book ''Tokaido Journey'', along with Zacha's recollections (in both English and Japanese) of travelling the road and the people he encountered.

The British painter Nigel Caple travelled along the Tōkaidō Road between 1998 and 2000, making drawings of the 53 stations along the Tōkaidō. His inspiration was the Hoeido Edition of woodblock prints entitled The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō by Utagawa Hiroshige.

The video game '' Tōkaidō Gojūsan-tsugi'', released by Sunsoft for the Famicom in July 1986 and later ported to other Nintendo platforms, features a firework maker protagonist who must travel the Tōkaidō to visit his fiancee, while thwarting attacks from a rival businessman.

In 2012, a board game called ''Tokaido'', designed by Antoine Bauza, was published by Funforge. In the game, players compete against one another to travel the Tōkaidō from Kyoto to Edo. Funforge developed a digital edition of the game, published in 2017.

Ōsaka Kaidō

In 1619, the Ōsaka Kaidō (大阪街道) was established as a spur of the Tōkaidō; it had four stations of its own after Ōtsu-juku. This addition extended the route to Kōraibashi in Osaka. This spur was also called the Kyōkaidō (京街道), or it was described as being a part of the 57 stations of the Tōkaidō.

Modern-day Tōkaidō

Today, the Tōkaidō corridor is the most heavily travelled transportation corridor in Japan, connecting Greater Tokyo (including the capital Tokyo as well as Japan's second largest city Yokohama) to Nagoya (fourth largest), and then to Osaka (third largest) via Kyoto. The Tokyo-Nagoya-Kyoto-Osaka route is followed by the JR Tōkaidō Main Line and Tōkaidō Shinkansen, as well as the Tōmei and Meishin expressways. A few portions of the original road can still be found, however, and in modern times at least one person has managed to follow and walk much of it.Carey, Patrick. Rediscovering the Old Tokaido: In the Footsteps of Hiroshige, Global Oriental, Folkestone, England, 2000.

See also

*53 Stations of the Tōkaidō
*Edo Five Routes
*Japan National Route 1
*Namamugi Incident
*Tōkaidō Main Line
*Tōkaidō Shinkansen
*Stone routes near Kyoto

References

Citations

Sources

* Traganeou, Jilly. 2004
''The Tokaido Road: Traveling and Representation in Edo and Meiji Japan.''
London: RoutledgeCurzon. (cloth)
*Vaporis, Constantine Nomikos. 1994. Breaking Barriers. Travel and the State in Early Modern Japan." Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. (https://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Barriers-Travel-Harvard-Monographs/dp/0674081072/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1219068536&sr=8-1)

External links

Walk the Tōkaidō
- an interactive tour down the road.

- from U.S. Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)

- Teacher James Baquet's log of a walk along the entire Tōkaidō, with photos and comparisons to Hiroshige's prints.


- hiroshige.org.uk, an online archive of the various editions of Hiroshige's prints

- hiroshige.org.uk
*
Tōkaidō Texts and Tales: Tōkaidō gojūsan tsui by Hiroshige, Kunisada, and Kuniyoshi.
Andreas Marks, ed. (University Press of Florida, 2015)
* The Fifty Three Stations of the Tokaido Represented as Cats - by Utagawa Kuniyoshi

Wright's Tokaido
— FLLW's annotated Hiroshige album — documentary a
hiroshige.org.uk

''Tokaido''
Funforge's ''Tokaido'' board game

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tokaido road
Road transport in Japan
Edo period

ja:東海道