Tōkaidō
Sign in to saveAlso known as Tōkaidō road, Tokaido road, East Sea Road, Tokaido, Eastern Sea Road, Tökaidö
road of premodern Japan
Key facts
- Length
- 514 km (319 mi)
- Time period
- Edo
- Cultural significance
- Most important road connecting Japan's two largest cities
- Related routes
- The Five Routes
- Restrictions
- Permit required to travel beyond each check station
- West end
- Sanjō Ōhashi in Kyoto, Japan
- Major intersections
- Ōsaka Kaidō at Ōtsu-juku station, Japan Nakasendō at Kusatsu-juku station, Japan
- East end
- Edobashi in Edo, Japan
- Country
- Japan
via Wikipedia infobox
~10 min read
Encyclopedic overview
The Tōkaidō road (東海道, Tōkaidō; [to̞ːka̠ido̞ː]), which roughly means "eastern sea route," was the most important of the Five Routes of the Edo period in Japan, connecting Kyoto to the de facto capital of Japan at Edo (modern-day Tokyo). Unlike the inland and less heavily travelled Nakasendō, the Tōkaidō travelled along the sea coast of eastern Honshū, hence the route's name.
The Tōkaidō was first used in ancient times as a route from Kyoto to Hitachi Province (central Honshu) before the Edo period.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Tōkaidō” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.