Item ID: 11489 Manuscript on paper, entitled on upper wrapper: “Dōchū jinba dachin chō” 道中人馬駄賃帳 [“Ledger of Horse & Porter Prices at Post Stations on the [Tōkaidō] Road”]; manuscript slip pasted on upper wrapper: “Tōkaidō nobori kudari shukueki hantori chō” 東海道上り下り宿駅判取帳 [“Ledger Book for Round Trip Fees on the Tōkaidō Road for Horses & Porters”]. TŌKAIDŌ ROAD POST STATIONS.

TŌKAIDŌ ROAD POST STATIONS.

Manuscript on paper, entitled on upper wrapper: “Dōchū jinba dachin chō” 道中人馬駄賃帳 [“Ledger of Horse & Porter Prices at Post Stations on the [Tōkaidō] Road”]; manuscript slip pasted on upper wrapper: “Tōkaidō nobori kudari shukueki hantori chō” 東海道上り下り宿駅判取帳 [“Ledger Book for Round Trip Fees on the Tōkaidō Road for Horses & Porters”].

Written on all four sides of each sheet. 22 sheets, each folded length-wise (460 x 153 mm.) in half, stitched at head, allowing it to be hung on the wall. [Japan]: on label on upper cover (in trans.): dated “1804-29.”

The 53 relay stations on the Tōkaidō road between Edo and Kyoto were required to keep careful ledgers recording the fees and assignments for packhorses and porters. The prices were regulated by the shogunate and were charged station-to-station and by weight and season.

This fascinating document, submitted to the bakufu (stating so on final leaf), details these prices at many of the stations along the road during the time of the first great travel boom in Japan (ca. 1800-30). For each job, details are given regarding number of horses and porters and prices, with a seal and date of the innkeeper or horse wrangler. The seals give the names of the stations.

Minor worming but a nice copy, preserved in a chitsu.

❧ Constantine N. Vaporis, “Caveat Viator. Advice to Travelers in the Edo Period” in Monumenta Nipponica, Vol. 44, No. 4 (Winter 1989), pp. 461-83.