Postman in the Edo period

In the Edo period, people who supported service of correspondence and information were named 'Hikyaku'. How they looked like? We want to provide their figures this time.

Before that, we add a piece of information about a film to find the idea of their job. This film is 'The Postman' which was made in the US and provided in 1997. The story was below,

The US in the near future was in a state of anarchy and all towns were in the situation out of communication. Once someone made a departure, he was exposed with no protection to pirates and murderers. So, towns' people couldn't communicate with the people living in other towns. One day, a hello succeeded in delivering a mail from a certain town to another town. Accidentally, he became a Postman. People were encouraged by his success, and they made a postmen's organization. Then this organization made a great contribution to re-organization of the country called the US.  

In Japan, there was a same kind of state of anarchy in certain era during its very long history. The Sengoku period (1467-1590) was that kind of. Old power became obsolete in this period. And newly flourished power, such as the Sengoku Daimyo developed their ability and controlled areas. 

As for their territories, each area was isolated and divided. So, if someone hoped to communicate with another person who lived in another Sengoku Daimyo's territory, there was no way. Furthermore, if he tried to visit by himself, he would be exposed to the danger of robbery and raid. Even if he wanted to communicate with someone, he ordered the professionals who were called 'Hikyaku' or 'Postmen'.   

In the Sengoku period, the service of correspondence and information wasn't like mail service nowadays, actually like espionage or secret messengers' work. There wasn't the role 'The Postman' acted in the Sengoku period of Japan. 

At the very end of the Sengoku period or Toyotomi Hideyoshi ruled era, the atmosphere was changed into few battle.  (Sengoku literally means 'battles between countries'.) At that time, Japan was battling with the Korea. So, Hideyoshi made a highly trusted correspondence network system between the frontline base (the Nagoya castle 名護屋城 in the Kyushu island) and his headquaters (the Osaka castle 大坂城 in Osaka city and the Fushimi castle 伏見城 in Kyoto city).

Furthermore, Daimyo (Lords) also made their own network between the Toyotomi's headquarters and their territories. The most urgent information was delivered by 'signal fire', however, it would be necessary that detailed information was provided by mailing system.

In this way, mailing system between the ruler and his servants and his frontline bases was strengthened at that time. And it changed from a secret messenger style to ordinally mailing system. 

So you can say no battle situation in the Japanese islands made the mailing system developed. It became routine even before the Edo period. 

Then the Sengou period finished and the Edo period when there was no battle came. The center of politics changed into the Edo castle. Apart from that, the War in the Korean peninsula ended but other situations didn't change. Especially, the emperor, samurai, other people. Until the era of the third Shogun, the position of Kyoto where the emperor lived was superior to that of Edo where the Shogun lived. However, the situation changed in the fourth Shogun's era. People became to consider that Edo was superior to Kyoto. In this situation, Osaka continued the role of the center of the economy. In the Edo period, Edo, Kyoto and Osaka were the most important cities, so, the service of correspondence and information among these 3 cities were most developed. And Daimyo (Lords) also made their network mainly between Edo.

And the most important thing for our concern, the regular correspondence system highly developed in this peaceful feudal period.    

This regular correspondence system was controlled by the group called 'Hikyaku'. They were the professional of running, horse riding and security. Because to deliver the mail or other important materials, they used their own feet or horses. And sometimes bad people tried to rob the goods. In this case, they needed to protect their goods. Considering the original background, their loads to carry were written documents from Edo to Kyoto, Osaka, and territories of Daimyo. And later, other goods were sometimes delivered, for example money or expensive artifacts.

'Hikyaku' people in the Edo period were below,

1. The Tsugi-hikyaku: organized by the Shogunate, public in the Edo period

2. The Daimyo-hikyaku: organized by Daimyo, there were many variations

3. The Machi-hikyaku: organized by Merchants, they mainly undertook Daimyo's correspondence 

The Tsugi-hikyaku: they were placed in the main highways, such as the Tokaido and the Nakasendo, and at a suitable interval between Edo and Kyoto. As of now, we can't find another existence of the Tsugi-hikyaku. So, their main purpose would be the correspondence between the political center in Edo and the imperial people in Kyoto. We suppose 'Hikyaku' is not researched enough, so, we may misunderstand this point. Main highways might be covered by them at least.

The Daimyo-hikyaku: they were placed between the center of the Daimyo's territory to Edo. According to the size of the Daimyo's territory, there were a wide variety of the Daimyo-hikyaku organizations. The Daimyo who had huge territory needed routine and trustful organization, so, their Hikyaku were quite similar with the Tsugi-hikyaku of Shogunate. On the contrary, opposite size Daimyo didn't create the organization but nominated a person in charge, so, the frequency was controlled.  

The Machi-hikyaku: they occured as an alternation of the Daimyo-hikyaku. And the latter part of the Edo period, rich non-samurai people used them. As nonofficial organizations, they needed the quantity, so, their territory was supposed to be narrowed into the frequent traffic and active economic activity. At that time, Edo, Kyoto and Osaka.

If something like a bicycle was invented and used as a tool of the Hikyaku, their ability was differed hugely from the amount they delivered. However, in the Edo period, Japanese people couldn't invent that, and the Hikyaku used only their foot quickness.

By the way, the highway was made difficult to pass through in the Edo period. For example, there weren't built bridge over the wide rivers, and the roads were zigzagged inside towns. The reason was security against attack of imaginary enemies. 

We suppose for the people at that time, speed of information was not so important.