hikyaku

thumb|upright|160px| were couriers in Japan who carried letters, documents, bills of exchange, and packages, using a system of relay stations under the bakufu military governments, beginning in the Kamakura period (1185–1333), gradually yielding to more modern systems beginning in 1858.

==Kamakura period== thumb|Courier or postman, Japan, hand-colouring|hand-coloured albumen print by [[Felice Beato, between 1863 and 1877]] During the Asuka period the government established a system called Five Home Provinces and Seven Circuits, served by messengers known as who carried special . This system had broken down by the time of the Kamakura period. The Kamakura shogunate established a relay system (Roppara hikyaku) of horse-riders and stages that would carry messages from the Rokuhara Tandai headquarters (in the Higashiyama area of Kyoto) to Kamakura, sometimes within 72 hours.