mathews_tokugawa_project

travel in the tokugawa period was mainly done on the tokaido, one of the five mian highways in japan.this was mostly due to sankin kotai, a ritual that forced daimyo from all over the country to move to edo for half the year.(edo being the city that would later become tokyo). the diamyo moved theyre processions along this road,while villagers bowed their heads as they passed. people set up shops along this road, this was to fill the needs of those people traveling along the tokaido. the tokaido road ran appoximately 488 kilometers, streching along the coast of edo to kyoto and then to osaka.

the main way of travel on the tokaido was by palaquin, it was a box that two people carried on their shoulders. women were forbidden to travel alone and were usually acompanied by men, there were severe punishments for violating the travel regulations; although they were not strictly enforced.back then peasants could not travel around japan unless they had a passport. the only way for peasants to get a passport was to say they were going on a religious pilgrimage, peasants often claimed religious pilgrimage just to travel around for vacations. today the tokaido is now a modern multi-laned highway but some of the old streches of the tokaido remain and are very popular with tourists.