Dear Customers & Freinds;

Hello from Japan! This is Antique Ichiroya News Letter.No.91st.
Here in Japan,we are in the middle of holiday called 'Golden week'and because weather now is so nice,many people travel during this time.
I went back to Tokyo over the weekend by Shinkansen(bullet train) Nozomi and took me only over 2 and 1/2 hours.
It sounds such a long time,but shinkansen is so comfortable and the best transportation to travel.Seats are really wide and enough space to stretch our legs and nice crews come by to sell hot coffee,ice creams,bento,magazines,anything you can come up with in order to stay comfortaably in the shinkansen.
Now,we get our destinations by the time we notice,but old days,it took soooo long spendings days.According the records,from Kyoto to Edo(500km) took about 2 weeks on foot.Today,I would like to talk about this road from Kyoto to Edo and related subjects.

There is the a coastal route which ran from Nihonbashi in Edo (Tokyo) to Sanjo Ohashi in Kyoto and that is called Tokaidou.(sometime,it is called Japanese Silk road since there were main cultural exchanges between Edo and Kyoto thr. this road).
Now,what is Kaidou? Kaido was the offical road which have places to stay,rest and feed horses for travelers who were required to travel for long period of time along the road and there are 5 Kaidous in Japan.
During their journey,they usually had Sugekasa,hats woven with sedge and carried bamboo baskets and before traveling, they needed to be approved by government and usually appply that they visit shrines and temples such as going on a pilgrimage.
One of the book from Edo has writings 'Travelers need to pay attentions not to loose money and your life',so they hide wallet under the bellyband tied to the body.Other things people travel with were Yatate,pen case with brush,tabacco case,small lantern,pill case and there was handy box called Tabi-makura(simply means pillow case) which contains toothpicks,abacus,and others in the box, and this box also can be a pillow! I always carry huge bags to carry all kinds of things even it is only 2 days trip,,,,traveling with only pillow box is something I can never do!

Of course,they can not carry everything,so they stop by kinf of hotels.
These places are nothing fancy,just had straw mattress to sleep on.
Also there were places calle Cha-ya where tea and good were provided.
At those places,people have various jobs,and 2 jobs were considered very imporatant,also unique.
One is called Meshitsugi-onna who refill rice bowls(basically,they served for guests),but they eventually became kind of prostitute,so governements decided to separated hotels which have those women and without them.
Other job was Kumosuke who help carrying luugage to next desitinations.
Eventually,these men also caused problems like stealing travelers belongings and charge enomous prices which we seem like we can never avoide no matter where and when we live!

Here below is the one of the great woodblock print from Hiroshige,53 prints Tokaidou Gojusantsugi.
You can click numbers and can see traditional Tokaidou scenes.
No.21 is the print at tea house,No.36 is the place in front of hotel,women are trying to get guest to their hotel.No.37 is the print with the Meshitsugi Onna

http://www.rakuten.ne.jp/gold/adachi-hanga/series/tokaido53.html

It seesms like tough and hard to travel during Edo,but looking at this prints,problems are part of fun and look so enjoyable.
One day,I would love to visit Tokaidou which Hiroshige left traces maybe with his beautiful prints.
I think most can not do that,so please enjoy the link I attached abve to see fantastic Hiroshige's prints!

Tomorrow,we will list interesting antiques,and fabulous kimonos,so please browse our both sites!

Thank you for taking your valuable time to read my 91st newsletters and we will get back to you soon!

Have a wonderful day!

Hisami Sato

Japanese antique Ichiroya
http://www.antiqueichiroya.com
e-mail: info@ichiroya.com
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Osaka 584-0025 JAPAN
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