were roads in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

dating from the

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

. They played important roles in transportation like the

Appian Way The Appian Way (Latin and Italian language, Italian: Via Appia) is one of the earliest and strategically most important Roman roads of the ancient Roman Republic, republic. It connected Rome to Brindisi, in southeast Italy. Its importance is in ...

of ancient Roman roads. Major examples include the Edo Five Routes, all of which started at Edo (modern-day

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

). Minor examples include sub-routes such as the Hokuriku Kaidō and the Nagasaki Kaidō. ''Kaidō'', however, do ''not'' include San'yōdō, San'indō, Nankaidō and

Saikaidō The is a Japanese geographical term. It means both an ancient division of the country and the main road running through it. Saikaido was one of the main Circuit (subnational entity), circuits of the Gokishichidō system, which was originally es ...

, which were part of the even more ancient system of Yamato government called

Gokishichidō was the name for ancient administrative units organized in Japan during the Asuka period (AD 538–710), as part of a legal and governmental system borrowed from the Chinese. Though these units did not survive as administrative structures beyon ...

. These names were used for administrative units, and the roads within these units. Many

highway A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It includes not just major roads, but also other public roads and rights of way. In the United States, it is also used as an equivalent term to controlled-access highway, or ...

s and

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

lines in modern Japan follow the ancient routes and carry the same names. The early roads radiated from the capital at

Nara The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an independent agency of the United States government within the executive branch, charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It is also task ...

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

. Later, Edo was the reference, and even today Japan reckons directions and measures distances along its

s from

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

Chūō, Tokyo is a special ward in the Tokyo Metropolis in Japan. The ward refers to itself in English as Chūō City. It was formed in 1947 as a merger of Kyōbashi and Nihonbashi wards following Tokyo City's transformation into Tokyo Metropolis. C ...

Gokaidō

The five main ''kaidō'' from Nihonbashi in Edo were: * Tōkaidō (東海道) to

along the coastline *

Nakasendō The , also called the ,Richard Lane, ''Images from the Floating World'' (1978) Chartwell, Secaucus ; pg. 285 was one of the centrally administered Edo Five Routes, five routes of the Edo period, and one of the two that connected the ''de facto'' ...

(中山道) to

through the mountains * Kōshū Kaidō (甲州街道) to

Kōfu is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 187,985 in 90,924 households, and a population density of 880 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Overview Toponymy Kōfu ...

* Ōshū Kaidō (奥州街道) to Shirakawa and other places of northern Japan * Nikkō Kaidō (日光街道) to

Nikkō is a Cities of Japan, city in Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. , the city's population was 80,239, in 36,531 households. The population density was 55 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Nikkō is a popular destination for Japanese and ...

Lodgings

At various times, the government established post stations (''

shukuba were Stage station, staging post stations during the Edo period in Japan, generally located on one of the Edo Five Routes or one of its sub-routes. They were also called ''shuku-eki'' (宿駅). These stage stations, or "" developed around them, ...

'') along the roads. These had lodgings for travelers and grew as commercial centers. These former post towns, along with castle and harbor towns, form a major category of cities in Japan.

Cultural references

''Kaidō'' figure prominently in

Japanese culture Japanese culture has changed greatly over the millennia, from the country's prehistoric Jōmon period, to its contemporary modern culture, which absorbs influences from Asia and other regions of the world. Since the Jomon period, ancestral ...

. The poet Matsuo Bashō memorialized his travels along the Ōshū Kaidō (and elsewhere) in the book '' Oku no Hosomichi''. A set of woodblock prints by Hiroshige forms a travelogue of the Tōkaidō.

Daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and no ...

, making the required ''

sankin-kōtai ''Sankin-kōtai'' (, now commonly written as ) was a policy of the Tokugawa shogunate during most of the Edo period, created to control the daimyo, the feudal lords of Japan, politically, and to keep them from attempting to overthrow the regi ...

'' trip between their '' han'' and Edo, also traveled along the ''kaidō'' and stayed at post stations. Some woodblock prints show their stately processions. The Bunraku play ''Kanadehon Chūshingura'', the fictionalized account of the true story of the Forty-seven Ronin, has several scenes set along various ''kaidō''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaido Road transport in Japan