Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 4.djvu/196

 large numbers, and as the service was very unpopular, the Government had to organise a regular system (1694), making all villages within five miles of the line of route generally responsible for the maintenance of a certain number of transport men and animals, and villages not more remote than twenty-five miles for a smaller number on exceptional occasions. The agricultural classes found this duty very onerous, and were generally glad to commute it for a fixed payment, which is said to have amounted in some cases to the total of the taxes otherwise levied. Fifty-three stations were established along the Tōkaidō between Yedo and Kyōtō, sixty-nine along the Nakasendo; and the journey by the former road occupied ten days, that by the latter twelve. The distance by the Tōkaidō being three hundred and thirty miles, it is seen that the rate of progress was thirty-three miles a day, and the average interval between the stations six and a quarter miles. It must be understood that this transport system was intended for the benefit of the samurai class only: if a commoner wanted horses or coolies, he had to hire them as best he could. In the case of samurai, however, a regular scale existed for determining the number of men and animals that a traveller might demand at a station. He received an officially signed order for that number before setting out on his journey, and it was notified that the people might refuse to comply with