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23-819: The Tōkaidō , one of the Edo Five Routes which connected east and west Japan during the Edo period , paralleled the river. Post towns along the river included Tsuchiyama-juku , Minakuchi-juku and Ishibe-juku . The Yasu River also crossed the Nakasendō , another one of the Edo Five Routes, separating Moriyama-juku and Musa-juku . [REDACTED] Media related to Yasu River at Wikimedia Commons 35°07′24″N 135°58′25″E  /  35.123315°N 135.973556°E  / 35.123315; 135.973556 (mouth) This Shiga Prefecture location article

46-594: A case. In South Korea , the ri currently in use is a unit taken from the Han dynasty (206 BC–220 AD) li . It has a value of approximately 392.72 meters, or one tenth of the ri . The Aegukga , the national anthem of South Korea, and the Aegukka , the national anthem of North Korea , both mention 3,000 ri , which roughly corresponds to 1,200 km , the approximate longitudinal span of the Korean peninsula . In North Korea

69-456: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article related to a river in Japan is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Edo Five Routes The Five Routes ( 五街道 , Gokaidō ) , sometimes translated as "Five Highways", were the five centrally administered routes, or kaidō , that connected the de facto capital of Japan at Edo (now Tokyo ) with

92-432: Is almost never used. Nonetheless, its appearance in many phrases and sayings means that "kilometer" must always be specified by saying gōnglǐ in full. As one might expect for the equivalent of "mile", li appears in many Chinese sayings, locations, and proverbs as an indicator of great distances or the exotic: The present day Korean ri (리, 里) and Japanese ri (里) are units of measurements that can be traced back to

115-483: The Chinese mile , is a traditional Chinese unit of distance . The li has varied considerably over time but was usually about one third of an English mile and now has a standardized length of a half- kilometer (500 meters or 1,640 feet or 0.311 miles ). This is then divided into 1,500 chi or "Chinese feet". The character 里 combines the characters for "field" ( 田 , tián ) and "earth" ( 土 , tǔ ), since it

138-755: The East Asian counterpart to the Western league unit . However, in English league commonly means "3 miles." Like most traditional Chinese measurements , the li was reputed to have been established by the Yellow Emperor at the founding of Chinese civilization around 2600 BC and standardized by Yu the Great of the Xia dynasty six hundred years later. Although the value varied from state to state during

161-524: The Edo period , the Tokugawa shogunate defined 1 ri as 36 chō, allowing other variants, and the Japanese government adopted this last definition in 1891. The Japanese ri was, at that time, fixed to the metric system , 216 ⁄ 55 ≈ 3.93 kilometres or about 2.44 miles . Therefore, one must be careful about the correspondence between chō and ri . See Kujūkuri Beach (99- ri beach) for

184-515: The People's Republic of China as the equivalent of the centi- prefix in metric units, thus limi ( 厘米 , límǐ) for centimeter. The tonal difference makes it distinguishable to speakers of Chinese, but unless specifically noted otherwise, any reference to li will always refer to the longer traditional unit and not to either the shorter unit or the kilometer. This traditional unit, in terms of historical usage and distance proportion, can be considered

207-515: The Spring and Autumn period and Warring States periods, historians give a general value to the li of 405 meters prior to the Qin dynasty imposition of its standard in the 3rd century BC. The basic Chinese traditional unit of distance was the chi . As its value changed over time, so did the li ' s. In addition, the number of chi per li was sometimes altered. To add further complexity, under

230-458: The tu , which was equal to 150 li (96.7 km). These changes were undone by the Republic of China of Chiang Kai-shek , who adopted the metric system in 1928. The Republic of China (now also known as Taiwan ) continues not to use the li at all but only the kilometer ( Mandarin : 公里 , gōnglǐ , lit. "common li"). Under Mao Zedong , the People's Republic of China reinstituted

253-656: The Chinese li (里). Although the Chinese unit was unofficially used in Japan since the Zhou dynasty , the countries officially adopted the measurement used by the Tang dynasty (618–907 AD). The ri of an earlier era in Japan was thus true to Chinese length, corresponding to six chō ( c. 500–600 m), but later evolved to denote the distance that a person carrying a load would aim to cover on mountain roads in one hour. Thus, there had been various ri of 36, 40, and 48 chō. In

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276-510: The Five Routes began with the shogunate taking government control of the post stations along the existing routes. Before this intervention, the post stations provided places for travelers to rest and ran a courier system. After the official takeover, the shogunate required that these stations give preferential treatment to those on official business or be forced to cease activity. In the 1640s, shōgun Tokugawa Iemitsu closed down all but

299-557: The Imperial Palace in Beijing and came to light in 1924. This has allowed very accurate conversions to modern measurements, which has provided a new and extremely useful additional tool in the identification of place names and routes. These measurements have been confirmed in many ways including the discovery of a number of rulers found at archaeological sites, and careful measurements of distances between known points. The Han li

322-496: The Qin dynasty, the li was set at 360 "paces" ( 步 , bù ) but the number of chi per bu was subsequently changed from 6 to 5, shortening the li by 1 ⁄ 6 . Thus, the Qin li of about 576 meters became (with other changes) the Han li , which was standardized at 415.8 meters. The basic units of measurement remained stable over the Qin and Han periods. A bronze imperial standard measure, dated AD 9, had been preserved at

345-501: The country. As part of the Five Routes network, eight minor routes were also created by the shogunate: In addition to the five routes, there were minor routes that were unofficial branches of or alternates to the main routes, or infrequently used routes. Some of the routes were referred to as hime kaidō , as they were alternate paths for main trade routes, but none were officially called that. Li (unit) Li ( Chinese : 里 , lǐ , or 市里 , shìlǐ ), also known as

368-564: The necessary stations, which would be the last major change during the Edo period . Along with the Post Stations, the government created a system of Check Stations along the Five Routes. Unlike the Post Stations, which provided for travelers, the Check Stations served a regulatory purpose, controlling the movement of people and goods. Some of the uses of these stations were preventing the trafficking of firearms , ensuring that

391-477: The outer provinces during the Edo period (1603–1868). The most important of the routes was the Tōkaidō , which linked Edo and Kyoto . Tokugawa Ieyasu started the construction of the five routes to increase his control over the country in 1601, but it was Tokugawa Ietsuna , the 4th shōgun of the Tokugawa shogunate and Ieyasu's great-grandson, who declared them as major routes. Post stations were set up along

414-474: The road, and drainage ditches dug in many places. Markers were put up to indicate distance at each ri , which was defined at the time as 3.93 km (2.44 mi) from the starting point at Nihonbashi . While the Five Routes crossed many waterways, few bridges were built. Instead, ferry boats were instituted. All five routes started at Nihonbashi in Edo. From that point, each road linked the capital with other parts of

437-436: The route for travelers to rest and buy supplies. The routes thrived due to the policy of sankin-kōtai , that required the daimyō (regional rulers) to travel in alternate years along the routes to Edo . The various roads that make up the Five Routes existed in some form before becoming an official set of routes. Tokugawa Ieyasu began work on the routes shortly after becoming shōgun in 1600. The official creation of

460-401: The traditional units as a measure of anti-imperialism and cultural pride before officially adopting the metric system in 1984. A place was made within this for the traditional units, which were restandardized to metric values. A modern li is thus set at exactly half a kilometer (500 meters). However, unlike the jin which is still frequently preferred in daily use over the kilogram, the li

483-561: The various rules and policies surrounding the sankin-kōtai were followed, and checking the passports of travelling commoners. Fifty-three Check Stations were created in the 17th century. (This is not to be confused with the 53 Stations of the Tōkaidō , which refers to the Post Stations on the Tōkaidō .) The shogunate also coordinated general improvements to the roads of the Five Routes. The roads were flattened and widened, with steeper sections paved with rough stone. Trees were planted alongside

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506-452: Was calculated by Dubs to be 415.8 metres and all indications are that this is a precise and reliable determination. Under the Tang dynasty (AD 618–907), the li was approximately 323 meters. In the late Manchu or Qing dynasty , the number of chi was increased from 1,500 per li to 1,800. This had a value of 2115 feet or 644.6 meters. In addition, the Qing added a longer unit called

529-401: Was considered to be about the length of a single village. As late as the 1940s, a "li" did not represent a fixed measure but could be longer or shorter depending on the effort required to cover the distance. There is also another li (Traditional: 釐 , Simplified: 厘 , lí ) that indicates a unit of length 1 ⁄ 1000 of a chi , but it is used much less commonly. This li is used in

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