tokaido

tokaido 04.06.10

city form: civil engineering

Established in 1619, the Tokaido Highway was the most important of the 5 routes of the Edo Period, linking Edo (modern day Tokyo) with Kyoto. Designed strictly for the passage of people and horses, ancient roads such as Tokaido deteriorated under the burden of carriage traffic in the Meiji Era. It was not until after World War II, when much of the country lay in ruins, that Japanese roads were truly modernized in order to speed the recovery of the nation and society.