The Edo period (1603-1867) was a period in Japan's history in which logistics developed greatly.
This was due to the Edo shogunate's establishment of the "Five Routes" (Tokaido, Nakasendo, Koshu-doju, Nikko-doju, and Oshu-doju) as major roads, as well as other logistics-related infrastructures that the shogunate established one after another. The flow of people and goods became even more active, and many transportation contractors were created for both water and land transportation.
The population of the Edo area exceeded 1 million at its peak, and as a major consumption center, a wide variety of goods were brought into the area.

The main means of transportation at that time was by water using ships. Large vessels such as higaki kaisen and taru kaisen were used for marine transportation, carrying various daily necessities such as cotton, oil, and sake. A single ship could carry up to 300 tons of cargo. Rivers were also developed as important transportation infrastructure.

In land transportation, I would especially like to introduce you to people called hikyaku. You may have seen them in school textbooks. Actually, there are several types of hikyaku.

For example, the tsugibikyaku, used by the shogunate, carried goods in a relay system in which goods were passed on to the next carrier at the inns (towns located along the highway). There were 57 inns on the Tokaido Highway, and a hikyaku was made between each inn and the next, a distance of approximately 10 km. When important official documents were to be transported, they were carried between Edo and Osaka in approximately three to four days, with two persons on the road in case of emergency. In some cases, more than two persons were needed to carry the cargo.

In contrast, the privately operated machibikyaku used horses to transport goods. The luggage was accompanied by a "sairyo" (the person on the horse in the model in the photo), who was in charge of transporting the goods for the wholesaler. The route carried letters, cash, small baggage, silk thread, silk fabrics, safflowers, and other commodities. It took more than ten days to travel between Edo and Osaka by regular mail. The cost varied greatly depending on the number of days required for express delivery, special tailored delivery, and other services.

The evolution of land transportation can be seen by comparing its past and present from various perspectives! In this issue, we will focus on land logistics on the Tokaido Highway (between Edo and Kyoto/Osaka).

Let us calculate manpower with a typical truck load of 10 tons.

During the Edo period, inns along the highway had the function of renting horses, and horses could be transported in shifts at each inn. The load limit for one horse was approximately 150 kg, and each horse was accompanied by a person called mago, who pulled the horse. In other words, to transport 10 tons of cargo from one inn to the next would require 67 horses and 67 magos. There were 57 inns on the Tokaido Highway between Edo and Osaka, and if only overland routes were used, it was necessary to take additional detours. Calculating these numbers, it was found that more than 4,000 horses and people were needed.

Today, with the development of trucks and highways, it is possible to transport goods with a surprisingly small number of people compared to the Edo period.

Travelers traversed the Tokaido Highway (about 540 km between Edo and Osaka) in about two weeks. It is thought that it probably took about the same amount of time to carry goods by horseback. However, since the machibikyaku traveled during the night, it was possible for them to transport the goods in about eight days, even if they changed horses at each inn. If the cargo was light, it could be transported even faster. Records show that the official courier service of the shogunate took approximately 4 days for a standard service, and 2 days and 16 hours for an express service. Even for the machibikyaku, it took six days for a mixed shipment between Edo and Osaka, and three and a half to four days for a specially tailored delivery service in which a relay of couriers carried a single letter.

Packages in the Edo period were packaged in different ways depending on the item. In addition to wooden boxes, straw, a byproduct of rice cultivation, was used to great effect as individual wrapping and as a substitute for cushioning. Wooden boxes were used as the main tool for a long time after the Meiji period, but since many trees were cut down to make them, a material shift from wooden boxes to corrugated boxes has been underway since the late 1950s. Corrugated boxes, which require fewer resources to make than wooden boxes, rapidly grew in number.

At the same time, the concept of palletization, in which multiple corrugated boxes are carried on a stand called a "pallet," became widespread, enabling efficient loading/unloading and transportation. However, the size of the pallets themselves is still not standardized in Japan, and there are still situations where boxes are manually transshipped between pallets of different sizes, or where boxes are manually unloaded without palletizing them in the first place, and these need to be improved urgently in Japan.

During the Edo period, the roads were not straight like today's roads, and routes required crossing mountains and rivers. In addition, the roads were not always safe to travel, as they were only made of gravel and sand, and became muddy when it rained heavily.

In order to make the route as safe and smooth as possible, the road between Otsu (Shiga Prefecture) and Kyoto, a part of the Tokaido Highway, was divided into a road for people and horses and a dedicated road for ox carts pulling cargo. Moreover, on the road dedicated to ox carts, two rows of stones were laid in the area where the wheels passed, and these stones were worn down in the center by the wheels' travel, creating a concave rail that made it easier for the ox carts to travel. These stones are called "Kurumaiishi. The Museum also exhibits some of the kurumaishi used in those days, so please come and take a look.

During the Edo period, ice was not used for cooling purposes because it was an extremely expensive commodity. Even so, super fast boats from Boso, present-day Kanagawa Prefecture, and the Izu Peninsula were used to transport raw fish to Edo (present-day Tokyo) even in summer. However, when transporting perishable foodstuffs such as fish and shellfish, efforts were widely made to preserve their freshness by salting them, and care was taken to transport them as quickly as possible in well-ventilated baskets. Raw fish were also transported by man and horse, but since they were at room temperature during transport, it is likely that by the time they reached their destination, they were no longer fresh enough to eat.

Today, trucks equipped with cooling facilities can transport fish in a short time and keep it at a low temperature until it reaches the consumer, making it possible to enjoy fresh food loaded on trucks from distant places.

In fact, there are some similarities between the horse-drawn hikyaku of the Edo period and modern-day truck transportation.

The first is the relay system.
Just as in the case of the machibikyaku, in which horses and magos were replaced at each inn, the "relay system" is used in modern truck transportation, in which a truck driver passes the baton to the next section of the route at the logistics center. By sharing the transportation of long distances among several people, the burden on the driver can be reduced.

Second, transportation utilization service was implemented.
Transportation utilization service refers to the business of transporting goods entrusted by customers by outsourcing transportation operations to actual carriers such as railroads, ships, airplanes, and trucks.
In the Edo period, a transportation utilization  service provider called Machibikyaku was established for the first time in Japanese history to arrange transportation throughout Japan. It would have been very expensive for merchant transporters to prepare their own men and horses for transportation to various locations. Therefore, the machibikyaku, which was a major hikyaku wholesaler, conducted business by using horses and men at inns that were already well maintained. They offered a variety of services in terms of the number of days of transportation and prices, and sold their services to high-ranking officials of the shogunate who were posted to various parts of Japan, feudal lords, and large stores that conducted business with distant areas. The company also seems to have been able to provide detailed responses and reimbursement for transportation accidents, such as delays, lost luggage, and damage.
It can be said that using the relay system of actual transportation at inns that had already been established was very rational in terms of ensuring speedy transportation and reducing transportation costs.


Third, efforts to increase the loading rate.
If the same amount of goods are to be transported over the same distance, it is desirable to carry as many goods as possible and do business efficiently. This approach has not changed over the years. For example, when there was a shortage of goods, the machibikyaku went around to customers and call for shipments, and for express delivery, they jointly transported goods with other companies in the same industry.

In "Part 2: The Logistics Crisis Looming Around You," we will take a closer look at a certain problem that threatens the modern logistics scene. It may not be someone else's problem.