Introduction

Metaphora in modern Greek not only means ‘metaphor’ as in English, but also stands for the notion of transportation. I would like the readers of this book to establish an analogous associative mechanism so that they think of the functional and the conceptual aspects of the Tōkaidō—Tōkaidō as a transportation route and Tōkaidō as a metaphor—as two closely related and often reversible realms. As I will argue in the pages to follow, the Tōkaidō of Edo (1603–1868) and Meiji Japan (1868–1912) was not simply a means of transportation, but carried a strong figurative capacity, embodying a multitude of ideologies and imaginings that shaped travelers, artists and spectators.