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The Tokaido—Scenes from Edo to Meiji Eras

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The Tokaido—Scenes from Edo to Meiji Eras F Impact of Railways on Japanese Society & Culture eatu The Tokaido—Scenes from Edo to Meiji Eras Jilly Traganou Oshu Kaido) road system. The Gokaido changed at each post station) or Infrastructure were initially developed to meet the mili- palanquins for high-status travellers. tary needs of the government to facili- There were ferry services at water cross- In the Edo Era (1600–1868), the Tokaido tate movement of officials, armies, and ings (Ise Bay, Lake Hamana), but travel- road was the most important route in Ja- post. Despite the travel restrictions, the lers had to hire porters at large rivers like pan, linking Kyoto, the imperial capital, internal stability and expanding economy Oi and Abe. The trip from Edo to Kyoto r with Edo, the seat of the Tokugawa permitted large numbers of commoners took about 12 days at an average speed Shogunate. As the name Tokaido (east- to use the roads. Consequently, by the of 25 miles a day. ern sea route) implies, the road runs east early 19th century, the emergence of a es from Kyoto to Edo. Kamigata (upper re- middle class, composed of lower-class gion) was the district surrounding the samurai and rising merchants, coincided Flourishing of Gokaido emperor’s palace in Kyoto. Therefore, with an extensive travel boom. during the Edo Era, people still went ‘up’ Post-stations (shukuba) offering lodging The flourishing of the Gokaido was (nobori) to Kyoto, and ‘down’ (kudari) to and other facilities were established largely supported by the alternate resi- Edo. At the Meiji Restoration when real along the roads at equal distances. dence system (Sankin kotai) whereby feu- political power was returned to the Meiji Middle stages and tea houses between dal lords (daimyo) were compelled to Emperor, he moved his Imperial Palace post-stations facilitated shorter journeys. travel annually to Edo, where they kept to Tokyo, set up a new central govern- Travellers were controlled at checkpoints their families and residences. The for- ment there and officially transferred the (sekisho) usually positioned at natural mal travelling procedure required many capital from Kyoto to Edo. After this barriers on the roads (such as Hakone and followers and a display of wealth dem- change in hierarchy, people travelled ‘up’ Arai). The road infrastructure included onstrating their high status. Various cat- to Tokyo and ‘down’ to Kyoto. bridges, river crossings, markers at every egories of inns (honjin, waki-honjin, In the Edo Era, travel in Japan was regu- ri (3927 m) and road maintenance, as yadoya) were built at each station to ac- lated by the Tokugawa Shogunate well as paving and roadside trees. Trav- commodate the daimyo processions. through the Gokaido (Tokaido, elling was confined to foot for common- Many local merchants and carriers were Nakasendo, Koshu Kaido, Nikko Kaido, ers and to horses (which had to be employed to serve them. Consequently, Figure 1 Comparison of Tokaido Road (Edo Era) and Tokaido Railway (Meiji Era, 1889) Copyright © 1997 EJRCF. All rights reserved. Japan Railway & Transport Review • September 1997 17 Impact of Railways on Japanese Society & Culture Figure 2 Tokaido Route Pictograph, 1716, showing Fuchu or Sunpu (today’s Shizuoka) the regions close to the roads benefited scenic but rough. Imperial envoys used places’, meisho (previously associated economically from the flow of people the two routes alternately. with spiritual matters), as sites for escape, and trade. The Gokaido, and especially illusion and entertainment. This attitude the Tokaido, became sites of social di- Floating world indicates a remarkable attention by the versity, where people from different The Tokaido became the main artery for socially-excluded and politically-dissat- classes and regions met and saw the west- travel by the daimyo fulfilling their Sankin isfied merchant and master-less samurai ern novelties being carried from Nagasaki kotai obligations and for commoners, be- classes to the periphery as a possible to Edo. cause it was less dangerous. However, playground. In 1691, Engelbert Kaempfer described many parts of the Tokaido were still prey the Tokaido (Fig. 1) as, ‘more crowded to unpredictable factors, such as bad than the publik (sic) streets in any (of) the weather, floods, and thieves. The Modernization most populous towns in Europe’. The Tokaido’s safety and especially flourish- Tokaido had 53 post-stations, many of ing amusement areas around the post sta- In the Meiji Era (1868–1912), the coun- which were parts of castle towns, temple tions increased its popularity in the mass try officially entered the modern age with cities, or port cities. They had the high- culture of the period. An entertainment the opening up to the West and the trans- est average population (3950) in relation industry (including souvenir shops, tea fer of the capital from Kyoto to Tokyo, to the other roads and had many tourist houses, public baths and brothels) devel- following the Meiji Restoration. First, facilities. Franz von Siebold, a Dutch oped along the route to alleviate the fa- there was a radical shift in public atten- doctor, remarked in 1826, ‘Except for a tigue of the journey. As a result, the tion to the main urban centres, particu- small portion of the Tokaido which passes Tokaido was identified in the collective larly Tokyo. Second, Western imported through a mountainous region, the road memory as a main part of the ‘floating infrastructure, and especially railways, al- consists of almost a continuous line of world’ (ukiyo), a culture based on travel- tered people’s concepts of space and towns, villages and teahouses.’ The ling and constant pursuit of life’s transient time. Both had major effects on the cen- Tokaido had fewer mountainous parts pleasures. The flowering of the gokaido tre-periphery relationship, and altered compared to the other roads. The during the Edo Era became a major theme perceptions from the illusory to the fac- Nakasendo also connected Edo and of the popular arts. The Tokaido’s post- tual. Kyoto via a longer inland route, that was stations were added to the list of ‘famous The Tokaido Railway was completed in 18 Japan Railway & Transport Review • September 1997 Copyright © 1997 EJRCF. All rights reserved. Figure 3 Tokaido Pictograph showing the same place as Fig. 2, 1690 1889 almost parallel to the route of Kusatsu. The parts missed by the line Tokaido road (Fig. 1). The feudal road Opening of Tokaido Railway were soon connected by private lines that system of travel control was abolished in became very popular, creating the so- 1869. The same year, the Meiji govern- Although the Nakasendo route was ac- called ‘railway mania’ at the turn of the ment agreed to proceed with railway con- cepted by both the government and mili- century. struction as a means of modernization, tary, as the work proceeded, they realized Opening ceremonies for the first section centralization of power and market uni- that the rugged terrain would cause much between Shimbashi (now Shiodome) and fication following the recommendation higher costs and longer construction. Fi- Yokohama (now Sakuragicho) took place of Sir Harry Parkes, (1825–1885) the Brit- nally, it was abandoned in 1886 for a new on 14 October 1872. Service started be- ish minister to Japan. Messrs Okuma route, almost parallel to the old Tokaido tween Osaka and Kobe on 11 May 1874, Shigenobu(1) and Ito Hirobumi started the road. Figure 1 shows the deviations of between Kyoto and Osaka on 6 Febru- construction between Tokyo and the railway from the road, usually as a ary 1877; and between Kyoto and Otsu Yokohama, and Sato Masayoshi and Ono result of mountainous geography. The in July 1880 after completion of the Tomogoro started surveying the route for route followed the Tokaido road until Osakayama Tunnel (28 June). Nagahama the trunk line. In their report to the gov- Atsuta except at Hakone Pass, where it Station (a national treasure since 1958— ernment, they concluded that it would took the easier path via Ashigara (Oiso, JRTR 9, pp. 28–29) was built in 1882 as be more useful to construct the trunk Kozu, Gotemba, Numazu), skipping the a part of the line, and transport between route along the Nakasendo instead of the post-stations at Odawara, Hakone and Nagahama and Otsu was via ship. This Tokaido to promote development of the Mishima. From Atsuta, it followed the made a major contribution to the local mountainous region. Their proposed in- ancient Mino Way to the famous economy, but it went into decline after land route also had the approval of the Sekigahara Pass. There, it turned south realignment of the railway that excluded military, who were afraid that a coastal along the Biwa Plain, crossing the south- the two stations from the route. The en- railway would be vulnerable to foreign ern tip of Lake Biwa via a new bridge tire trunk line between Shimbashi and attack. The Japanese military saw the rail- over the Seto. The post-stations on the Kobe was inaugurated on 1 July 1889 way as an increase in the power of for- Tokaido road from Kuwana to Ishibe were with a journey time of 20 hours and 5 eigners—’an abominable alien machine’ not included in the railway route, which minutes. in ‘the land of the gods.’ rejoined the Tokaido road again at Copyright © 1997 EJRCF. All rights reserved. Japan Railway & Transport Review • September 1997 19 Impact of Railways on Japanese Society & Culture Negative reactions in 1690, is an example of a pictographic as a travel guide containing practical in- The railway construction created various map. Although drawn in a panoramic formation regarding porterage fees and negative reactions on the part of the post- style containing vivid details of life along inn location and prices, to facilitate stations who saw it as a threat to their the roadside, it does not lack precision travel.
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