In 1601, Tokugawa Ieyasu organized the postal, transport and travelling
system along the 496
kilometer long Tokaido Road from the Nihonーbashi Bridge in Edo to the
Sanjyo-Ôhashi Bridge
in Kyoto, building fifty three Inn Towns called "Shukuba Machi"
between the two end destinations,
Nihon-bashi bridge in Edo and the Sanjô-Ôhashi in Kyoto.
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Ieyasu knew very well that there would be no ever-lasting regime. The Soga clan had perished
in four generations. The powerful Fujiwara clan had lost its power when the Samurai class
gained their power. The Heikes had perished in a few generations. Ieyasu
was afraid that the
powerful warlords in the West of Japan would rise in revolt and advance
westwards to overthrow
the shogunate.
For the reasons of military defense, Ieyasu ordered that no bridge should be built across the
Ôi-gawa river, the Abe-gawa river, and other long rivers. The ferry boat services across the
Ôi-gawa River were also prohibited. The current of the Ôi-gawa River became very rapid after
much rainfall and it was dangerous to cross the river. This gave birth to the professional fording
coolies. They were called "Kawagoshi Ninsoku", In 1696, the shogunate
built the Office of Fording
in Shimoda Inn Town ( Station town) at the river side of the Ôi-gawa
River and put the forder's
services under supervision.
There were six classes of the services for crossing the river. Fording on the shoulders of one
carrier as idicated in the photo ( 5 ) was most inexpensive. It required one wooden "river tablet"
for one coolie which could bought at the Office of Fording "Kawa Kaisyo".
For the Carrying Boards
called "Rendai", the Rendai tablet for its rental fee must be
bought.
The fares of the services varied according to the class of the carrying
boards "Rendai" and the
number of the fording coolies. The warlord's palanqueen was put on a delux
Rendai and was carried
by a dozen of the carriers and a few assistants.
The fares depended also on the depth of the day of the water in the river.
Each day, the official
tariffs on the services were decided. No carrier could ask for an exhorbitant
price for their
services. When the depth of the water reached 136 centimers, fording was
prohibited.
Sometimes, travellers must wait more than twenty days at the Inn Town until
the depth of the
water would become smaller. Any traveller was not permitted to ford
the river themselves under
any conditions of the river.
At the end of the Edo period, there were 650 carriers at the Shimada Inn
Town. The government
of the shogunate collapsed in 1868 and the fording system ended in 1871and
the ferry boat services
started. The carriers became jobless. The band of samurai who accompanied
the last shogun
Yoshinobu to the province of Suruga also lost their jobs. They began to
cultivate the vigin fields and
forests on the Makinohara Plateau at the west side of the river. They turned
them into the beautiful
green tea fields.
Mt.Fuji and the tea fields on the
Makinohara Plateau
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The Makinohara Plateau had belonged to the
house of Tokugawa. It was granted to the former
samurai and carriers by the new government.
In the photo (1), you can see the two bridges at a short distance. Japan
has became an economical and technological power and she has been able
to afford to build several modern bridges across the Ôi-gawa River.
We can reach Kyoto from Tokyo in 2 hours and twenty minutes by the bullet
train "Nozomi". People of Shimada will held the Festival of Wading
the Ôi-gawa River in July or August to recall hard days in travelling
when they were forced to stay more than twenty days at the river side town
of Shimada and will continue maintaing the longest wooden bridge in the
world which has been washed away many times.
It is said that Shimada-mage hair style originated in Shimada city. The
hair style Bunkin Taka-shimada is its variation. Bunkin was originally
a hair style of men but women adapted it into the Shimada mage to create
the new hair style Bunkin Taka-shimada which became the standard hair style
for the Japanese brides in the Meiji era for its elegant beauty. They will
held Shimada mage hair style Festival on the third sunday in September.
They will have a parade of women with Shimada mage hair style.
©Copy rights rerserved - Written 24th January 2005- Hiroaki Sasaki
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