are historic Japanese distance markers akin to

milestone A milestone is a numbered marker placed on a route such as a road, railway, railway line, canal or border, boundary. They can indicate the distance to towns, cities, and other places or landmarks like Mileage sign, mileage signs; or they c ...

s. Comprising a pair of earthen mounds (''tsuka'' or ''zuka'') covered in trees and flanking the road, they denoted the distance in '' ri'' () to

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 ...

, the "Bridge of Japan", erected in

Edo Edo (), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the '' de facto'' capital of Japan from 1603 as the seat of the Tokugawa shogu ...

in 1603. ''Ichirizuka'' were encountered and described by

Engelbert Kaempfer Engelbert Kaempfer (16 September 16512 November 1716) was a German natural history, naturalist, physician, exploration, explorer, and writer known for his tour of Russia, Iran, Persia, India, Southeast Asia, and Japan between 1683 and 1693. He ...

, c.1690: "serving as a milestone are two hills, facing each other, which are raised up on both sides of the road, and planted with one or more trees.""Zu einem Meilenzeichen dienen zween gegen einander stehende Hugel, welche zu beiden Seiten des Weges aufge worfen und mit einem oder mehr Baumen bepflanzt sind" (''Geschichte und Beschreibung von Japan'')

Establishment

The

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...

established ''ichirizuka'' on the major roads in 1604, 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 was an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era ...

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, to be maintained by "post stations and local villages", were one component of the developing road infrastructure, which also included bridges and ferries; post stations (both

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, ...

, and the more informal

ai no shuku were unofficial post stations along historical routes in Japan. These post stations formed organically along routes (such as the Tōkaidō and the Nakasendō) when the distance between two places was too far or when there were difficult passes ...

); and tea-houses ( chaya). However, the main aim was "official mobility, not recreational travelling": the movement of farmers and women was discouraged, and a system of passports and maintained. By marking the distance from

rather than

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 ...

establishing a symbolic point of origin for all movements, the Tokugawa made of mile markers what they would later make of checkpoints: powerful reminders of the government's geopolitical ubiquity and efficacious tools in its appropriation of space.

''Ichirizuka'' were important enough to be found on the well-known "Proportional Map of the Tokaido" by printmaker

Hishikawa Moronobu Hishikawa Moronobu (; 1618 – 25 July 1694) was a Japanese artist known for popularizing the ukiyo-e genre of woodblock prints and paintings in the late 17th century. He consolidated the works of scattered Japanese art styles and forged ...

(d. 1694). A traditional poem allegorically compares the ''ichirizuka'' that mark distance to the ''

Kadomatsu are traditional Japanese decorations made for the Japanese New Year, New Year. They are a type of ''yorishiro'', or objects intended to welcome ancestral spirits or ''kami'' of the harvest. ''Kadomatsu'' are usually placed in pairs in front o ...

'' marking the years of a person's life.

Survival

With the

modernization of Japan The was 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 ...

in the

Meiji period The was 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 colonizatio ...

, many of the mounds disappeared through road-widening and construction schemes, and the survival of both is now rare. Of ''ichirizuka'' that are still extant, sixteen have been designated for protection as national

Historic Sites A historic site or heritage site is an official location where pieces of political, military, cultural, or social history have been preserved due to their cultural heritage value. Historic sites are usually protected by law, and many have been rec ...

. Of the two within Tokyo, that at Nishigahara was once threatened by a road-widening project; a movement to save it led by industrialist

Shibusawa Eiichi was a Japanese industrialist widely known today as the "father of Japanese capitalism", having introduced Western capitalism to Japan after the Meiji Restoration. He introduced many economic reforms including use of double-entry accounting, ...

, the "father of Japanese capitalism", is commemorated in a monument beside what is now . ()

Notes

References

{{Authority control Ichirizuka History of road transport

Establishment

Survival

See also

Notes

References