Existing comment:
Japan:
On the Tokaido, Japan's Eastern Sea Road:
The Tokaido was the most important and heavily traveled of the five major routes that linked other regions to Edo (modern Tokyo), the administative and political seat of the shogun's government. Rebuilt in the early seventeenth century by the first Tokugawa shogun, this coastal road connected Edo and Kyoto, home of the emperor and Japan's historical center of authority and national identity.
People traveled along the Tokaido primarily for political, mercantile, and religious reasons. The road provided a controlled route for commerce, communication, and official travel -- especially by the large retinues of daimyo (domainal lords) who were required to spend alternative years in Edo. other travelers used permits similar to today's passports to cross security checkpoints along the way.
Travel along the Tokaido was mainly on foot. Although it was possible to make the entire journey in about a week, the route required fording bodies of water, and delays for weather or high water were common. Fifty-three stations -- rest stops offering refreshments, lodging, and some entertainment -- were established along the way.
Leisure travel for sightseeing was not common on the Tokaido. Artist Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858), however, had a rare opportunity to travel along the whole route with an official envoy in 1832 and went on to immortalize it in his best-selling woodblock prints. He created more than twenty full series of Fifty-Three Stations along the Tokaido, featuring designs of the lively activities and magnificent landscapes he witnessed and reimagined in his prints. Landscape prints by Hiroshige and other artists, such as Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), gave people throughout Japan images of sights and events that most had not experienced, much as videos, photos, and the Internet do today. |